Fine Gael leadership rivals silent on Frances Fitzgerald’s future
Both Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar and Housing Minister Simon Coveney publicly backed the under-fire Ms Fitzgerald yesterday, as Fianna Fáil justice spokesperson Jim O’Callaghan said she should not be reappointed.
However, neither minister was prepared to confirm whether they would return her to office.
In a statement to the , Mr Varadkar said: “The selection of cabinet ministers is the prerogative of the Taoiseach. The confidence and supply agreement between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael underpins that. I have total confidence in the Tánaiste.”
However, when asked specifically if Mr Varadkar would keep Ms Fitzgerald as justice minister if he became Taoiseach, a spokesperson said the issue is “notional”.
Mr Coveney, in Galway yesterday, again gave his full backing but stopped short of confirming she would remain in that position should he become Taoiseach.
“I have absolute faith in Frances Fitzgerald,” he said.
“But I wouldn’t be as presumptuous as to start talking about who I would be putting into a Cabinet and who I wouldn’t be. But if you are asking me do I have confidence in Frances, absolutely I do.
“She has done a great job; she is dealing with a lot of difficult and challenging issues in An Garda Síochána at the moment, and across the justice sector generally. She is coping very, very, well with that.”
Mr Coveney said Fianna Fáil would not have any input into deciding who Fine Gael appoint to Cabinet.
“I am hearing some comments from Fianna Fáil that are misguided at best. The Taoiseach will decide who’s in the Cabinet and not, and will put a team together to run Government.
“And an opposition party, regardless of whether we are in a minority government or not, will not be deciding who is in the Cabinet and who isn’t. I think we should make that crystal clear.
“We have a confidence and supply agreement with Fianna Fáil. That is very clear, and certainly, the discussions in the putting- together of that document was very clear in the context of a Fine Gael Taoiseach will make decisions about who is in Government.”
Mr Coveney said he was confident that Enda Kenny would deal with the Fine Gael leadership issue next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Deputy O’Callaghan said yesterday that his confidence in Ms Fitzgerald was declining, and he criticised the Government’s failure to resolve issues in An Garda Síochána by moving against the commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.
He also dismissed reports that Fianna Fáil would block the justice minister’s reappointment to Cabinet by the next Taoiseach.
“It is not the case Fianna Fáil has responsibility for selecting the next government, whoever it is,” he said.
However, sources close to Ms Fitzgerald said they believe the suggestion of a no-confidence motion is a bid by Fianna Fáil to use her as a proxy target in the Garda scandal, in order to protect itself from claims of inaction.
TD accuses Fitzgerald of giving incorrect info
An opposition TD has claimed Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald repeatedly gave her incorrect information over the Garda college financial scandal during numerous Dáil questions in the past five months.
Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy made the claim as pressure mounts on Ms Fitzgerald over her handling of Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan and the garda college scandal.
Ms Murphy said that before the controversy fully emerged, she had raised numerous questions in the Dáil on the internal Garda audit into the scandal.
On a number of occasions, she said Ms Fitzgerald gave her incorrect or incomplete information.
Ms Murphy said she first raised questions over serious financial issues at the Garda college on January 31, when she asked Ms Fitzgerald during a Dáil debate if the internal audit would be published.
In response, Ms Fitzgerald said she received the report in September 2016 and that Ms O’Sullivan would provide it to the Comptroller & Auditor General.
On February 9, Ms Murphy asked for details of the audit and its findings, and questioned why it had yet to be released.
She said the response from Ms Fitzgerald was “dismissive” and that the “questions about it had been answered at the Oireachtas justice committee”.
Ms Murphy subsequently checked the transcript of numerous justice committee meetings to find the questions had not been raised in the committee, and emailed Ms Fitzgerald seeking clarification on the Dáil claim.
Four weeks later, after receiving no response, Ms Murphy contacted Ms Fitzgerald again, with the justice minister saying she spoke in error and meant the issues were raised at the Dáil public accounts committee.
Ms Murphy — a member of the PAC — said this did not happen, at which point Ms Fitzgerald told her the issues had been answered comprehensively during a Seanad debate, during which no new information was provided.
Challenged on March 30 over the apparent misinformation, Ms Fitzgerald agreed to correct the Dáil record, saying she “made a mistake” but without explaining why, a situation Ms Murphy said raises “concerns about her willingness to be transparent”.
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