Sullivan Report - Taoiseach’s response beggars belief

The assertion by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday that the finding of the Sullivan report, whereby “an administrative error” failed to alert the Attorney General in the statutory rape debacle, is now a matter for civil service, beggars belief.

He is clinging to the finding which neatly put the blame on an anonymous civil servant for failing to alert the Attorney General about the case, and in so doing, he is hitching himself to a straw.

Mr O’Sullivan, a senior civil servant, produced the expected result that could only be found in the constrained circumstances he was asked to investigate, which was only one act in this drama.

His investigation, while undoubtedly carried out meticulously, was grossly inadequate to inquire into the broader mire which led to a constitutional crisis and the emergency legislation rushed through the Oireachtas.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny was correct to describe it as “political whitewash” in the Dáil, which was not given the opportunity to discuss the matter before it recessed for the summer.

In contending that the Attorney General should have been informed, the Taoiseach was right.

But he was wrong in denying that this was the point.

It was the point. The Supreme Court had signalled its readiness to open the contentious question of defence, and it had been adverted to years before by the Law Reform Commission. Mr Ahern’s Government and its agents were simply not prepared.