Ineffective Kenny bumbled GSOC bugging response

Garda watchdog feared telling Justice Minister about possible ‘wiretap’ in its office, while Taoiseach garbled relevant legislation

IT was the week when accountability went to the dogs — watchdogs, attack-dogs and lapdogs.

Whichever breed you back in this savage dogfight, the Garda crisis has raised serious and far-reaching questions about how power is wielded.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny made a shambles of his intervention; Justice Minister Alan Shatter looked shifty; and the Garda Siochána Ombudsman’s Office (GSOC) was, initially, shaky.

But the only thing GSOC did wrong was to not hit back at the other two, hard enough or early enough.

The body that polices the police feared it had been bugged; it brought in an independent firm of specialists to sweep the building; found it was likely it was under surveillance; and suspected gardaí were behind it.

The scandal, which should have exercised Mr Kenny and the Justice Minister, was: who bugged GSOC and why?

Instead, they spent three days raining fire down on the Ombudsman, for not telling the Justice Minister of the sweep, in a crude, shabby attempt to distract attention from the bigger question.

The fact the Justice Minister has always taken the force’s side against the Ombudsman, and has had to deny they are “joined at the hip”, was clearly a key factor in the GSOC’s decision not to tell him about what they had found.

This brought Mr Kenny bumbling into the saga.

So often typecast as the Fr Dougal figure in the Government, this week saw Mr Kenny develop into Fr Ted — more devious and calculating than the previous role, but equally as ineffective.

After continually misquoting Section 80, Subsection 5 of the Garda Siochána Act 2005, and getting it wrong for two days running, Mr Kenny gave a non-apology apology and announced: “I think we can put that behind us now.”

The phrase was eerily reminiscent of Ted’s repeated plea that the money was only “resting” in his account and could we just talk about something else, please?

But the fact the Taoiseach does not know, or understand, the legislation he is citing to the Dáil is alarming.

That section of the Act clearly states the Ombudsman’s discretion in informing the minister of such matters, as it is an independent body.

Panicked by its own incompetence, the Government finally found a part of the legislation that did support its case, but only five days into the crisis, which still leaves the embarrassment that Mr Kenny did not really know what he was on about.

The Taoiseach then moved from toothless attack-dog to hapless lap-dog, for his old buddies in the banks.

Mr Kenny dismissed any notion he should intervene in the firesale off-loading of the 13,000 mortgages left in the ashes of the Anglo-Irish Nationwide shambles.

International ‘vulture funds’ are likely to swoop-in and devour the cut-price debts, which means that, as they are not based in the State, the struggling families from whom they will be snatching the front-door keys will have no protection under the Central Bank code of conduct.

So, effectively, Mr Kenny is happy to sell-out 13,000 Irish mortgage slaves to foreign, absentee landlords: he is not prepared to put in place any protections before the debts — so lucrative to the new owners and a lifeline to the family — are shipped abroad.

Mr Kenny should really get a grip on his Dáil statements.

Last week, he gave the impression we would all know our water charges before going to the local election polls, in May, but now says we will only get a notional average.

The Taoiseach also tripped himself up when pressed on the penalty points whistleblower, Sgt Maurice McCabe, and an alleged transcript of a conversation in which the Garda confidential recipient said to him: “If Shatter thinks you’re screwing him, you’re finished.” Mr Kenny sparked confusion by telling the Dáil he had read “the transcript”, which many took to mean the transcript of the conversation — which was odd, as Mr Shatter later claimed he had not seen it.

Once this admission started to raise eyebrows, Mr Kenny’s spokesperson insisted the transcript the Taoiseach was on about was the one that records what is said in the Dáil.

When this column asked why Mr Kenny would need to read a written account of exchanges he had taken part in to fully understand them, the spokesperson said: “To make sure he heard everything accurately.”

And it is nice they are finally taking accuracy so seriously, as it does seem to be a huge problem for this Government.

Mr Shatter has cut a very sorry figure throughout this unedifying spectacle, which has dented public confidence in everyone involved.

The Justice Minister has been accused of misleading the Dáil with his statement on Tuesday, which claimed no bugging had taken place and the gardaí had been subjected to “baseless innuendo”.

This was flatly contradicted by Garda Ombudsman Simon O’Brien’s evidence to a Dáil committee the following day, in which he said the chance of GSOC not being under surveillance was nearly zero, and a public-interest probe had been launched, as serving gardaí were suspected of the bugging.

In an attempt to wriggle out of these glaring omissions from Mr Shatter’s address to TDs, he accused the Ombudsman of being “confusing and contradictory”.

But, in reality, that is a charge most fittingly levelled at the minister, as written briefing notes, given to him before his Dáil speech by GSOC, clearly point towards surveillance; the use of “Government-agency level” equipment; and suspicion of garda involvement.

But Mr Shatter did not tell the Dáil any of that.

Why?

We also have the curious comments of Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, who stated that no “unauthorised” garda surveillance had taken place.

Cabinet Minister Pat Rabbitte was among many at a loss to understand how the commissioner could make such a sweeping statement.

Unless every single garda has been interviewed about the matter, or he is aware of the actual culprit, how could the commissioner possibly know for sure?

It was another weird twist in a strange, disturbing saga that has yet to fully reveal itself or its end-point.

Rather than seek the truth, Mr Kenny and the Justice Minister decided to unleash the dogs of war — but it is their credibility that has been bitten into most deeply in the resulting blood-letting.