Government’s ‘double standards’ in Collins affair

The Government has been accused of "double standards" in its reaction to revelations that Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins made representations on behalf of a convicted drug dealer, asking for leniency in his sentencing.

The Limerick TD’s party colleague, Michael McGrath, said the practice should be dealt with “collectively” by all parties because “many politicians down the years have made representations — including the Taoiseach, in a family law case”.

He was referring to a case where Enda Kenny wrote to the then justice minister, Alan Shatter, in late 2011, asking to “know the present position” in relation to a divorce case of one of his constituents.

At the time, Mr Collins described Mr Kenny’s letter as an “an outrageous failure of judgment”.

Defending his colleague on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics yesterday, Mr McGrath said he did not accept that the party’s justice spokesman would be hamstrung in his future Dáil contributions as a result of the controversy, and said that the party leader, Mícheál Martin, was right not to sack him.

“There is a need for all parties to get together and at least put it down in writing so that this issue of discretion and judgment is removed. It should be in black and white,” he said.

“We don’t want a situation where we have double standards. Because there is a minister of state serving in the current Government who made a very grave error of judgment as well,” he said referring to a 2008 letter from Labour’s Kathleen Lynch testifying to the good name of the parents of a rapist — for which she later apologised. Mr McGrath also said there was an acknowledgment in a report on RTÉ’s Six One News on Thursday from one senior minister, saying off the record that he had made representations in court cases. “Has the Taoiseach gone around his Cabinet asking if any of you have written similar letters,” he asked Minister for European Affairs Paschal Donohoe, who was in the same studio.

“I believe there are far more letters out there that have not come into the public domain. So let’s have an open and honest debate about this issue and let’s get it right going forward, so the same mistakes don’t happen again,” said Mr McGrath.

Mr Donohoe accepted that there was an element of compassion involved in Mr Collins’ representation, which pointed out to the court that the convicted man was a widower with four young children.

However, he said: “Mícheál Martin, in the way he has handled this, has shown his inability to be consistent on issues that really matter.”

Independent TD John Halligan said there was no need to establish new Dáil rules on the issue because “it’s just common sense to know that you should not influence the judiciary”.