Kenny not alone in attack on tribunals

BOBBY PRINGLE has a point when he states that Enda Kenny’s assessment of the Taoiseach’s testimony to the Mahon Tribunal is “tantamount to eroding the very institutions which define Ireland as a democracy”.

However, he forgot to mention the sustained attack on the tribunal’s integrity by Government spokespersons, including ministers.

And he makes no reference at all to extreme comments by some journalists. For example, a number of prominent commentators alleged recently that the tribunal was an outrageous breach of most fundamental principles of justice and jurisprudence and accused it of subjecting the elected head of government to a Stalinist show trial.

One journalist went so far as to ridicule the tribunal as “the celestial interrogations of one of Ireland’s doughtiest champions of virtue”.

All of these interventions, as alleged by Mr Pringle, also could be “tantamount to eroding the institutions which define Ireland as a democracy”.

Anthony Leavy

1 Shielmartin Drive

Sutton

Dublin 13