Call for Kenny to come clean on Callinan issue

The Taoiseach must come clean on why he sent a senior civil servant to do his "dirty work" and effectively give former garda commissioner Martin Callinan his P45, opposition TDs have insisted.

Fianna Fáil’s Micheál McGrath said the Oireachtas had been treated with “disdain” by Enda Kenny and the Justice Department’s secretary general, Brian Purcell, regarding events leading up to the commissioner’s abrupt decision to stand down.

Mr McGrath accused the two men of “hiding” behind the Fennelly probe into why Mr Callinan suddenly quit his post in March after the Taoiseach had ordered Mr Purcell to his home to convey concerns over an unfolding phone-tapping scandal.