Coalition told to widen inquiry for Callinan claims

Claims that Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan was forced from office should be investigated by the high-level probe into the bugging scandal, the Oireachtas Justice Committee has told the Taoiseach.

As controversy continued to rage over Enda Kenny’s role in the commissioner’s sudden departure, the move ratcheted up pressure on the Government to widen the terms of reference for the inquiry so that Supreme Court Judge Nial Fennelly can rule on what prompted Mr Callinan to quit.

The committee’s intervention came as Mr Kenny and Alan Shatter, the justice minister, again insisted they were not told by senior civil servant Brian Purcell that Mr Callinan had sent a letter to the Department of Justice alerting the minister to the bugging scandal two weeks before the Taoiseach sent Mr Purcell to Mr Callinan’s house to express Government concern about the very bugging scandal he had tried to warn about.

Mr Callinan stood down the next morning.

Mr Purcell, the secretary general at the Department of Justice, has emerged as a central figure in the political storm, but the justice committee held off from a decision to call him and Mr Shatter in for questioning until after the terms of reference are published.

Mr Kenny admitted he “should have been told” about the letter, but opposition party leaders continued to express disbelief at his version of events.

They insist that Mr Callinan was used as a “scapegoat” and sacked “on a trumped-up charge” to protect Mr Shatter during another day of Dáil drama which ended with the minister comfortably surviving a confidence vote 95-51 as the Coalition united behind him.

Earlier, Mr Kenny told the Dáil Mr Shatter had received a suspect package containing anti-Semitic material and a white substance which turned out to be harmless.

Mr Kenny condemned the incident as a “new low” after the army’s bomb disposal squad, which also deals with chemical threats, was called to Mr Shatter’s home to deal with the situation.

Fianna Fáil’s Niall Collins said he hoped those responsible for the package were caught, but added that all TDs receive hate mail, and the Taoiseach’s revealing of the incident was “not relevant” to the debate.

Pat Rabbitte, the communications minister, said he believed Mr Shatter had not seen the commissioner’s letter until after Mr Callinan had resigned, but told Newstalk: “I can’t argue that that seems hard to credit and explain.” Mr Rabbitte called on Mr Purcell to explain himself before the Oireachtas justice committee.

The committee has written to Mr Kenny urging the Fennelly inquiry to deal with the recordings in Garda stations and the management of correspondence in the Department of Justice in its remit.

Michael Noonan, the fiance minister, said the revelations of the recording of phone calls to and from Garda stations may in time result in further changes in privacy law.

Mr Shatter has asked the Inspector of Prisons to carry out an urgent probe into the taping of phone calls.