Taoiseach ‘unable’ to take questions on garda phone tapping report

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will be “unable” to take any questions on the controversial Fennelly report into decades of garda phone tapping when it is published today as he will be in Germany at a long-arranged meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Government officials confirmed Mr Kenny will not answer any issues today on the scandal which risks calling into question an unknown number of court cases due, they claimed, to Ms Merkel’s own schedule demands.

The Irish Examiner understands that the long-awaited second report of the Fennelly commission — which will stretch to 740 pages and is specifically examining alleged garda phone tapping of suspects and their solicitors since 1980 — will be published this afternoon.