Kenny had to take ‘personal command’
The tapping of telephone calls to and from Garda stations for up to 25 years could have serious implications for major court cases during that period.
Mr Noonan insisted that the situation was so serious, the Government had no option but to set up a commission of inquiry.
“The Taoiseach thought it was a matter of sufficient magnitude and concern to take personal command of the events.
“There are very few things, apart from the finances of the State, that are as important as the security of the State and having confidence in the Garda Síochána is essential to that, so the Taoiseach is taking every step to restore full confidence,” he said.
The finance minister said the tapping of telephone conversations to and from Garda stations was “very widespread and of very long duration”.
Mr Noonan said the key thing now was to investigate whether the revelation would impact adversely on civil and criminal cases that have taken place over the past 25 years.
“The practice was discontinued in November but at that stage the information which has now come to hand of it being so widespread and of the possible implications of it weren’t to hand,” the minister said.
Mr Noonan said he would have thought the justice minister would have been informed about the practice when it was discontinued last November, but Mr Shatter had not been.
“I don’t know whether he was aware of any of the facts or not, I don’t know to what extent he was briefed,” Mr Noonan said as he stated the Government was “fortunate” to have him in place as justice minister.
Mr Noonan said he did not know if the latest bugging revelations were linked to Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan’s surprise decision to quit his post.
“I don’t know what issues might have influenced him, but he resigned for family reasons,” the finance minister said.
Mr Noonan, himself a former justice minister, insisted the phone taping was a major concern for the Cabinet.
A statement issued by the Government laid out the basis for action.
“The implications of this matter are potentially of such gravity that the Government has decided to set up a statutory commission of investigation into this matter of significant public concern.
“The Government is extremely concerned about this information. It is not yet clear why this practice was in operation,” the statement said.
The terms of reference for the commission of inquiry are expected within the next few days.
They seek him here, they seek him there
By Shaun Connolly Political Correspondent
Cabinet in turmoil, Garda in crisis — and Alan Shatter in hiding.
As yet another bugging scandal rocked the force to its core while the nation’s top cop sensationally quit his post, the justice minister was too busy to bother addressing the Dáil on the grave twist of events as a gathering air of panic threatened to envelop the Government.
But don’t worry about the country drifting dangerously off course with seemingly no one at the wheel, Enda Kenny had reassuring words for everyone on No-Show Shatter: “The minister will deal with this on Thursday.”
Phew! That’s all right then. Only 48 hours until we might, maybe, get to know what the hell is going on.
The sense of Cabinet chaos was underlined by Mr Kenny’s spokesperson saying: “We don’t even know the logic behind this happening in the first place.”
He was referring to revelations that phonecalls to and from garda stations had been routinely bugged for a quarter of a century, but the words could also easily apply to the Government’s whole disaster-laden approach as the whistleblowing scandal turned into the GSOC crisis before prompting the first resignation by a garda commissioner in three decades amid a nationwide police bugging operation coming to light.
However, that fact emerged last June in a GSOC report which Mr Shatter should have known about, so why all the drama on the very day the Cabinet was openly split on how to deal with Callinan, and calls for Shatter’s resignation reached fever pitch?
Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin suspected “the wool is being pulled over people’s eyes” in an attempt to deflect attention.
The Taoiseach’s spokesperson denied it was an exercise in distraction, but only after commenting: “I think it would be one of the more elaborate distractions under taken.”
Finance Minister Michael Noonan only added to the confusion when, strangely, he appeared on the Six One News, not the Justice Minister, to try and explain the situation. Not that he had any answers as to why, despite GSOC exposing the practice last summer, it was not ended until November and the Justice Minister, who we are always told is oh, so hands on with these issues was, apparently, in the dark until the attorney general alerted the Taoiseach on Sunday.
“I don’t know whether he was aware of any of the facts or not, I don’t know to what extent he was briefed”, Mr Noonan stated at one point, somewhat unhelpfully for both the viewers, and his colleague Mr Shatter.
But at least the finance minister’s dry wit lifted spirits with his assertion: “The Taoiseach thought it was a matter of sufficient magnitude and concern to take personal command of the events.”
Enda in “personal command” of a matter of magnitude? Cue a national flashback to Ted’s face when he realised Fr Dougal had been left in charge of a funeral before the camera panned to the grave exploding. This would be the same Taoiseach who tried to take “personal command” of his own Cabinet on Friday by telling them all to shut-up about the garda scandal the rest of the country was talking about.
The fact that nearly all his ministers just ignored the “command” merely added to the feeling that his authority has been badly drained by this unravelling affair and his inability to get any kind of grip on it.
It then emerged Mr Shatter might bother to turn up in the Dáil today after all to address the little matter of what Mr Noonan called a threat to “State security” — how nice of him.
Oddly, Mr Shatter had been in the Dáil just before Mr Kenny answered questions on the latest crisis to strike the gardaí, when he took queries from TDs with his defence minister’s hat on.
But as there is no defence for his performance as justice minister. It is now high time Mr Kenny finally blew his own whistle and ordered Shatter off the political pitch.
By Caroline O’Doherty
A former colleague of Martin Callinan has said the former commissioner took the hit for the Minister for Justice and his resignation had not been inevitable.
Retired garda detective chief superintendent John O’Brien said he was deeply shocked and saddened by the commissioner’s decision to leave the force, describing it as a personal tragedy.
He said Mr Callinan would not have taken personal criticisms too much to heart in making his decision but there were “political realities” that influenced his situation.
“Martin is a very cool, competent individual. He has an ability to express himself very clearly and he is highly respected both at home and abroad in terms of his analytical and police abilities.
“So he was not one who in normal circumstances would be swayed by issues of criticality because that’s the kind of thing that he and I and others dealt with as a matter of normal business.
“I think what was new to him, and new to a lot of serving police officers, is the close proximity to the political world. If there are any lessons to be learned, and it’s too soon probably to be too prescriptive about those, is that the air gap between serving police officers and serving chief police officers and the political sphere needs to be significantly widened so as to allow each part to play its part but not to be contaminated by the other because clearly Martin Callinan was and is a proxy target in terms of the Minister for Justice.”
Mr O’Brien worked with Mr Callinan in the Crime and Security Branch in Garda Headquarters.
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