Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I note the length of the amendment tabled by the Government to the motion of no confidence. It probably should be recorded in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's longest amendment. The Minister challenged people to take issue with this lengthy opus, this accolade from his Government colleagues. I do not have the time to go through it point by point, but I would like to take issue with the commendation afforded to him on the manner of his handling of the Magdalen laundries issue. Far from being comprehensive or conclusive, it was shambolic and the bare minimum that could have been delivered. That is not just my assessment of that episode. He was criticised recently by the United Nations for precisely the same reason in respect of those women.

The accusation stands that the Opposition is playing the man rather than the ball. The accusation from the Minister is that the Opposition is not interested in dealing with the substantive issues, so let us set them out. There is the substantive issue of public confidence in senior management An Garda Síochána, as well as confidence of rank and file gardaí in their own senior management; shattered public confidence in protections for whistleblowers within an Garda Síochána; issues of public confidence around the operation of GSOC and public concerns about possible surveillance of the Garda ombudsman; public alarm at the prospect of illegal taping of telephone conversations to and from Garda stations; public alarm that privileged communications between solicitors and persons in custody may have been illegally recorded; public alarm that those illegal tapes may have compromised court proceedings; and public alarm that perhaps sentences handed down may have to be revisited, or in the worst case scenario, miscarriages of justice identified. These are the substantive issues at play and they are the very reasons the Minister faces a motion of no confidence in the Chamber.

The Minister argues, with some merit, that many of the issues and dilemmas within the operation of An Garda Síochána are not new. They have their genesis in the past and the fact previous Ministers for Justice failed to tackle them. That may be the case, but the fact remains also that the Minister has been a central actor in exacerbating the public alarm and the damage done to confidence in the proper administration of justice in this State.

That is how seriously he has damaged the apparatus of justice in this State.

My colleague has referred to the Minister's position in respect of the whistleblowers. We have heard a great deal of revisionism from the Government benches in that regard. The Minister took a deliberate decision to abuse and attack those men. He misled the Dáil. He allowed false statements to stand on the record of the House . He did not correct the record until it became politically expedient for him to do so. The Minister sought to minimise the concerns that were expressed about the possible surveillance of GSOC. He pointed the finger of blame at GSOC itself in the first instance. In one celebrated episode, he almost tried to portray this affair as a form of comedy by suggesting that the clients of a coffee shop may have been listening in on GSOC. All of the time, he was facing away from the issues at play. Rather than reforming, he was dead set on protecting the status quohe now claims to be set to overturn. He did this deliberately. It is clear from his record that he is not a reforming Minister when it comes to the Garda Síochána.

The Minister suggested in his opening remarks that "I could not do what I do... without the strong support of Fine Gael and Labour Party colleagues, both within and outside Cabinet". That is probably the only statement he made this evening with which I can agree. Frankly, I am baffled that the Taoiseach and perhaps more particularly the Tánaiste can stand shoulder to shoulder with the Minister when it is so apparent that he is part of the problem in this scenario. He is not some reforming Minister who has just been unfortunate. In many ways, he is the author of his own misfortune. Certainly, he is the author of the damage that has been done to the Garda Síochána and to the administration of justice.

Other people have faced the consequences of the Minister's litany of catastrophes. The Minister sacked the confidential recipient. The Garda Commissioner is gone. A question mark is emerging with regard to the Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality. The Minister has claimed that the Secretary General did not bring this letter to his attention. As recently as this morning, the Taoiseach sought to point the finger of blame at the former Garda Commissioner by suggesting that he should have written not just to the Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality, but also directly to the Minister. It is not as if those on the Government benches are afraid to apportion blame. They have done that quite liberally. They are certainly not prepared to attach any level of blame to the Minister as the central actor and dynamic in this catastrophe. They are certainly not prepared to seek from him a level of accountability at the most basic level that one would expect from a Minister for Justice and Equality.

The Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, was absolutely correct when he referred to the "moral authority" that is necessary if the Garda Síochána is to operate. However, he must understand that the authority of the Garda has been damaged. More to the point, the authority and credibility of the Minister, Deputy Shatter, is now set at zero. The dogs on the street know that. I fail to see how that is not recognised by those on the Labour Party and Fine Gael benches as well.

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