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.

This would circumvent the Garda Síochána Act 2005, which sets out a clear process for sacking a commissioner, which requires a collective cabinet decision.

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said it was “appropriate” that Mr Kenny would make a statement on the events which, she said, are “shrouded in uncertainty, if not secrecy”.

She raised fresh questions about the sequence of events after receiving Mr Kenny’s official diary for the period through Freedom of Information.

The Government blamed a “clerical error” in the diary entry showing a meeting between Mr Kenny and justice officials at 7.30am on Sunday, March 23.

Mr Kenny previously claimed he only became aware of the practice of telephone recordings at Garda stations later that evening and discussed it with officials and the justice minister the following day.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin called on Mr Kenny to “bring clarity on the issue” before the justice committee and to “lift the gagging order” on Mr Purcell by letting him discuss it.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore increased the pressure on Mr Kenny, saying it was “a matter for the Oireachtas committee to invite him”, and adding that “members of this Government have always been willing to appear before Oireachtas committees”.

Mr Gilmore last month signalled his belief that Mr Kenny still has questions to answer, saying Mr Callinan’s resignation is “a matter of great consequence” and it is “clearly in the public interest the matter be teased out in full”.

As the Dáil debated the Guerin report into the handling of allegations of garda misconduct, fresh allegations about malpractice in the force were raised by Independent TD Mick Wallace.

Mr Wallace said he was recently contacted by a retired garda who gave him a 27-page dossier of claims. They allege a senior male officer in contention for the position of Garda commissioner was one of several gardaí involved in beefing up arms finds and drug running for criminals.

Further whistleblower claims were raised by Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty, who said Garda Keith Harrison has told him he was victimised after arresting a colleague for drink driving.