Pressure on Kenny over role in exit of Callinan

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is under renewed pressure to explain his role in the resignation of former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan, after his Coalition partners suggested he should answer questions on the matter before an Oireachtas committee.

The controversy was reignited following confusion over the timing of a meeting he held with former justice minister Alan Shatter and the most senior Department of Justice official, Brian Purcell, two days before Mr Callinan’s departure. The Oireachtas justice committee is scheduled to question Mr Purcell in two weeks, and said it “reserves the right” to ask him about the resignation, which happened the morning after he was dispatched to the Garda boss’s house by Mr Kenny.

Opposition parties called on Mr Kenny to give a full account of his role in the resignation, which senior gardaí and sources close to Mr Callinan have claimed amounted to a sacking.