Deafening silence over sex offender interventions

NEWSPAPERS like ours get dozens of press releases from political parties every day, many of them reacting to the major stories or issues of the day.

Earlier this month, for example, this newspaper broke a story that the St Vincent de Paul had paid €150,000 for psychological assessments for schools in the Dublin region alone. That triggered a slew of releases from the opposition criticising the Department of Education and Minister Mary Hanafin.

But a strange thing happened this week. The Irish Examiner broke a story that junior minister Tony Killeen’s office had made representations seeking the early release of a sex offender.

Mr Killeen yesterday explained on Morning Ireland that he didn’t have sight of the two letters sent by his staff. He pleaded that they had been sent inadvertently, that the most he had sought was better treatment for the convicted man.

There were a few areas where Tony Killeen was shown to be potentially vulnerable. His inability, for example, to state for sure that this was the only sexual abuse case on which he had made representations. Also, there was the inglorious admission that he had allowed a letter in his name to be sent without being aware of his contents. There was also the appropriateness of making representations on behalf of a convicted sex offender — similar to the criticism meted out to fellow Clare TD Pat Breen late last year.

The strange thing was that no political party responded to it. There were no press releases from the two main opposition parties, Fine Gael or Labour. And when the Irish Examiner contacted them for comment, there wasn’t any. Even after Tony Killeen gave a relatively comprehensive response yesterday morning.

Why was this? Why the sudden reticence? Why the sudden forsaking of an opportunity to make a strong point about a pressing issue.

People from political parties who spoke on the basis of anonymity ascribed it to a ‘there but for the grace of God go I factor’.

They pointed out that TDs from all parties have been caught out making totally inappropriate representations. It affected Fine Gael’s Breen a few months ago. Progressive Democrat minister Bobby Molloy resigned as a minister when he admitted making representations on behalf of a convicted sex offender in April 2002. Even the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern wasn’t unscathed. His office made representations on behalf of convicted dangerous driver, Philip Sheedy — the man centrally involved in the episode that led to the resignation of two senior judges, Hugh O’Flaherty and Cyril Kelly.

“We are all tarred with the same brush unfortunately,” said one reliable source yesterday. “I think that most TDs in the Dáil have processed letters like that without thinking about the consequences.

“It’s not wise to be making enquiries on people who have been convicted in those circumstances.”

According to another source, one of the worst things about being a TD is that most still feel the need to be clientilist despite the abolition of the dual mandate.

It leads to politicians making hundreds of representations each year, including at lease a few that may be questionable or inappropriate.

And so, when Tony Killeen admits to having a letter fired off without the appropriate checks and balances, the response from fellow politicians is recognition rather than criticism.

Their failure to engage with the issue or to raise a whimper of protest tells us our pork-barrel and parish-pump political system is in dire need of reform.