GSOC affair - A bad week for Kenny and Shatter

This has been a very bad week for Taoiseach Enda Kenny, possibly the worst since he assumed that office.

He has prevaricated and dodged the most important issue at the very heart of the scandal around the attempt to spy on the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission — a threat to State security through a covert attack on an agency of our parliament that, by even the calmest reckoning, amounts to sedition.

He has, intentionally or through unacceptable and unimaginable ignorance, muddied the waters by repeatedly and incorrectly insisting that the GSOC was obliged to share information with the Justice Minister Alan Shatter. Even his apology, when he could not ignore the facts any longer, was a mealy-mouthed, graceless concession that made no reference to how his error gave a false, derogatory impression of the GSOC’s behaviour and even of how the scandal unfolded.