‘Serious questions to answer’ for justice minister

The justice minister is now facing serious questions as it emerged he was told of an the email at the centre of the latest Maurice McCabe scandal a full week before the Taoiseach was informed.

It has now been revealed that Charlie Flanagan was alerted to the existence of the 2015 email detailing a strategy to discredit Sgt McCabe at the O’Higgins Tribunal on November 13.

A day later he sat directly next to the Taoiseach in the Dáil when Leo Varadkar gave incorrect information under questioning claiming the Department of Justice had “not been able to find any record of being informed before the fact of the legal strategy the commissioner was going to pursue”.