Lenihan accused of burying report
Opposition parties said Mr Lenihan had used the high-profile change of government to distract from the damning contents of the tribunal’s sixth report.
The report found senior gardaí had abused suspects in custody, falsified interview notes, conspired to cover-up their actions and committed “shocking perjury” in the witness box.
Fine Gael’s justice spokesman Charles Flanagan said it had been a deliberate ploy to publish the Morris Tribunal report on May 7.
“Minister Lenihan received a copy of the report from the tribunal on April 24 and could have published its findings at any stage of the last two weeks. But it looks like Minister Lenihan and his government were deliberately trying to bury the findings.
“The date that Minister Lenihan has chosen for publication is clearly designed to bury its findings in the avalanche of publicity surrounding the formation of a new government,” he said.
A statement from the Department of Justice denied there was anything sinister about the publication date.
“Save in exceptional circumstances, the legislation establishing the tribunal states that the minister must [publish] within 14 days of receiving a report.
“The 14-day period expired on [May 7] and accordingly the minister laid the report before the houses. As with previous reports, this report will be debated in the oireachtas in due course,” it said.
However, Labour Party justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte said it was cynical to release the report on a day when the media’s attention was on the change in taoiseach.
“The decision to withhold until today a report that has been with Minister Lenihan since April 24, is clearly designed to swamp the bad news of yet more critical findings on Garda conduct in Donegal in the tsunami of news coverage that will mark the election of the taoiseach and appointment of new ministers,” he said.
Similarly, Sinn Féin’s Aengus Ó Snodaigh said the timing of its publication was calculated.
