AG did not give Tánaiste legal advice over email

The office of the Attorney General did not give crisis-hit Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald legal advice when she received the May 15, 2015, email raising concerns over the deeply controversial garda legal team strategy against Maurice McCabe.

The Department of Justice confirmed the latest change in the Government’s position over the affair last night, saying the phone conversation with the State’s most senior legal expert’s office was for information purposes and “not legal advice”.

In an email published by Ms Fitzgerald last Tuesday in an attempt to stave off calls for her to resign, the under-pressure Tánaiste stressed on the record in the Dáil and the Seanad that the correspondence said that she was unable to act to tackle the garda legal team’s tribunal strategy to discredit Sgt McCabe.