Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald under pressure over Maurice McCabe strategy

Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald is under fresh pressure to explain why she only learned of the strategy to undermine Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe a year after his cross-examination at a state commission in 2015.

The Dáil witnessed highly charged scenes yesterday during which Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan accused Labour TD Alan Kelly of running a “smear campaign” against him in recent days.

Mr Kelly has been seeking answers to specific questions in relation to what Ms Fitzgerald knew in 2015 when she was justice minister and what was known by her department about the tactics used by lawyers acting for former Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan when cross-examining Sgt McCabe at the O’Higgins Commission.