Fennelly Fallout: Creighton plans to make formal complaint to gardaí

Renua Ireland leader Lucinda Creighton is to make a formal complaint to gardaí over revelations that potentially vital files belonging to ex-Garda commissioner Martin Callinan were destroyed before they could be examined by the Fennelly report.

Responding to the 300-page document’s finding that Mr Callinan binned 10 black bags of notes from his office and that a SIM card for his mobile phone is missing, Ms Creighton said the matter “merits a full investigation” and that she will force one to happen if it does not occur.

Speaking at her party’s inaugural think-in before the Dáil’s return this month, Ms Creighton said it is deeply worrying that potentially key information held by a central figure in the ongoing controversy cannot be found.

She said the matter must be addressed and that she will make a formal complaint if required in order to kickstart an investigation. “I’ll be making contact with the [new] garda commissioner [Noirín O’Sullivan],” Ms Creighton said.

Noirín O’Sullivan

“All I’m aware of are very very serious allegations and if they are true then I think it absolutely merits a full investigation,” she said.

According to the interim report of the Fennelly commission into Mr Callinan’s sudden retirement on March 25, 2014, he cleared out 10 black plastic bags of “personal” papers from his office before shredding them on April 4 last year.

Martin Callinan

It also noted that a SIM card in Mr Callinan’s phone was removed and destroyed by an unknown person at a later date, meaning no records of texts of phone calls during that time can be examined.

Meanwhile, Ms Creighton has also said her party will not go into power simply to “prop up” Fine Gael, a party she said expected her to “sit down and be quiet” and be a “good girl”.

“We’re very clear about what we want to do in government and if we can’t achieve it we just simply won’t enter government.”

Ms Creighton told party members and guests — including speakers Declan Ganley, Fr Peter McVerry, economist Colm McCarthy, and academic Elaine Byrne — she “will not play political games”.

She declined to say if Renua will support motions of no confidence put down by Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin against Taoiseach Enda Kenny over the Fennelly report, and that she did not know if her party will have speaking rights.

One of the speakers, Ms Byrne, said if new parties like Renua are to be successful they must address the “growing frustration” of State bodies like the Criminal Assets Bureau over the slow progress of corruption investigations, saying cases are sent “to the DPP and they die”.