Coalition transparency called into question over bugging controversy

The Coalition is attempting to downplay the bugging scandal but its claims of accountability and transparency have really been called into question, writes Deputy Political Editor Mary Regan

FOR a Government whose commitment to accountability and transparency was already beginning to wane, the Coalition’s handling of matters of vital public interest in recent days can only serve to undermine its promise on entering office that “honesty is not alone our best policy but our only policy”.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who made this pledge in March 2011, was yesterday under pressure to explain why he erroneously quoted the law in what was described as an attempt to undermine the office of the Garda Ombudsman in the ongoing saga over investigations into whether its offices were bugged or under surveillance.