More heads could roll after a tumultuous day in Irish politics

WHAT a day! We all know the old adage that a week is a long time in politics — sometimes it seems a day can be even longer.

It started with all the signs of disarray and disagreement in the Government, between the parties and within Fine Gael. Taoiseach Enda Kenny had what was described as a “good-natured” meeting with Leo Varadkar, the transport minister, in order to calm tensions between himself and Alan Shatter, the justice minister.

But the day ended with the Government looking united and solemn, and revealing a new scandal that requires an investigation of the highest level. And it could be an investigation with the most serious ramifications for our state.

Things started with a tough-minded Garda Commissioner, a man with a reputation for defending the gardaí come what may — right or wrong, some would say. This is not a Garda Commissioner who ever offered a warm welcome to bodies charged with oversight, because he believed his force (as he described it) needed no oversight from anybody.

The day ended with Martin Callinan gone, with the powers of GSOC strengthened and with a new Garda authority on its way. According to the statement issued by the Government after its meeting, the Cabinet has strengthened its commitment to the reform of Garda oversight and accountability. “This will include the establishment of an independent Garda authority, which is appropriate to Ireland’s needs and which will maintain appropriate democratic accountability to the Oireachtas.”

This entire controversy has forced the Government, as part of a programme of reform, to bring forward legislation with new urgency to protect whistleblowers.

During a radio discussion earlier in the morning, Paul Reynolds, RTÉ’s crime correspondent, said it was his understanding that Callinan never really meant to use the word “disgusting” to describe his two garda colleagues who blew the whistle. According to Reynolds, Callinan regretted the word almost as soon as it had left his mouth. But he couldn’t bring himself to withdraw it&.

At one level, the consequence of Callinan’s inability to admit any fault in the culture of An Garda Siochána will be the biggest challenge to that culture in the history of the State. Culture eats strategy for breakfast, they say, but the establishment of a new Garda authority, and stronger powers for the Garda Ombudsman, has the potential to usher in an era of much stronger transparent and independent accountability than the commissioner would ever have wished.

Have the events of the day saved Shatter’s ministerial career? For now, the answer is yes. There will be a further Dáil debate tomorrow, and undoubtedly the opposition parties will be doing their damndest to put him under as much pressure as possible. So far, the established opposition parties have failed completely to find the smoking gun they need if they are to do him in. The only TDs who have really done him damage are independents Mick Wallace and Clare Daly.

If the Government is heaving a sigh of relief, though, it should think again. It has been damaged. The arrogance that has been a hallmark of too many ministerial responses to every revelation of wrongdoing has left an increasingly sour taste in the mouths of too many citizens.

The whistleblower who is continuing to serve, Sgt Maurice McCabe, is being badly treated within the force. We have still to see whether and how the Government will implement the radical reforms needed in the penalty points system. The new Garda scandal, details of which will unfold in the next couple of days, could well cast even murkier clouds over the force.

And in much more fundamental ways, damage has been done behind the scenes. A government of Ireland in the 1970s was destroyed by stubbornness and obduracy. In the early 1980s, a government was consumed by internecine rivalry, to the extent that Cabinet ministers borrowed bugging devices from the gardaí to record each other’s conversations. In the 1990s, another government was destroyed by rancorous distrust among its members.

The events of the last three months, all stemming from the refusal of the authorities to deal openly with hard information brought to them by whistleblowers, have already damaged the reputation of the Garda, undermined relationships between the parties in government, seriously eroded the authority of the Taoiseach, and almost certainly turned political friends within the Cabinet into enemies.

Those same events have led to a number of enquiries, the results of which will be unfolding for months to come. If it emerges, for instance, that the gardaí have been listening in to privileged conversations in Garda stations, to help them in investigations, that could rock the foundations of the State. Many more heads would roll.

Already, these revelations have brought one distinguished career to a premature end in the course of a day. I don’t think anyone should rule out the possibility that, before the dust has settled on this crisis, there will be further and greater political damage.