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.