Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It has been a very disturbing period in terms of the whole area of the administration of justice. Public confidence has been fundamentally undermined by the incompetence the Government has shown in overseeing all the episodes that have emerged. The Taoiseach and Tánaiste will be aware that Garda sergeants and inspectors, who are gathering as we speak for their conference, have said that Garda morale is on the floor. They will also be aware that the Minister for Justice and Equality failed to attend the conference. That is bad enough, but there was no replacement. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, could have attended, or an alternative Minister could have attended, as was the case in the past. The Government has basically walked away from hearing first-hand the issues of concern to those Garda sergeants and inspectors. Indeed, the Garda Representative Association has confirmed that, for the second year in a row, it is not even going to bother inviting the Minister for Justice and Equality to its event. Considering the decision he has made in regard to the AGSI, who could blame it?

That is the current environment. The platitudes of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste about gardaí, particularly in the speech from the Tánaiste, ring very hollow in terms of how the men and women who are protecting our communities feel right now about how the Government has handled all these affairs.

With regard to the administration of justice, the allegations around the Garda ombudsman's office being bugged were very serious. Unfortunately, however, on the day after it was reported in The Sunday Times, the Taoiseach misquoted the Garda Síochána Act and said that GSOC had a requirement to report to the Minister. Straight away, the tone was set that, in the phrase that was used, the victims were being turned into the villains. The Taoiseach robustly refused media calls for an independent inquiry and it dragged on for another week. Then, finally, he opted not for an inquiry but for a review by Mr. Justice John Cooke, which will report soon. In particular, he did not opt for a commission of investigation into something as serious as this, something so fundamental to our democracy.

When it came to the dossier that was handed over to him by the Fianna Fáil leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, which contained the historical legacy allegations from the Garda whistleblower, Sergeant Maurice McCabe, the allegations were again very serious. I remember well the Taoiseach's remarks at the time, but he again opted for a review, not an inquiry, by Mr. Sean Guerin SC. This review is also ongoing.

When it came to this matter of the tape recordings, however, the Taoiseach went immediately to a commission of investigation. There are suspicions that there was an attempt at distraction away from what were the core issues. In our party's view, the core issue was another emerging scandal, one of the biggest scandals in the history of the State, which is the whole Ian Bailey affair. To take the House through this, very soon investigating officers from the French authorities will come into our State to look to investigate witnesses. That is outrageous interference in our criminal justice system that the Taoiseach is tolerating, even though he knows the basis of that case and the basis for external investigating officers coming into our jurisdiction is flimsy at best. This is based on Garda files that are now fundamentally flawed, which was proven by the report from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2001 of which this State has been aware for all those years. That was the basis on which the Supreme Court refused to extradite Ian Bailey. We have all that information, yet the Government is allowing the French authorities to come here and carry on. It is a fiasco.

This involves allegations of Garda behaviour very similar to what emerged during the Morris tribunal, but it is even worse because the State apparatus has stood over this for far too long. Be it the various Ministers with responsibility for the justice portfolio, Attorneys General or the Department of Justice and Equality, they have stood over this whole period. While the incorporation of the Ian Bailey tape recordings from Bandon Garda station into this commission of investigation's terms of reference is welcome, what we need is a dedicated commission of investigation into that whole affair.

There are serious questions for the Minister for Justice and Equality in respect of this affair. He has known since early 2012 following the decision of the Supreme Court and that of his own Department to hand over the 44-page critique from the DPP's office of the initial Garda investigation - a critique that apparently rips that entire investigation to shreds. He has known about this for the past number of years and stood back and let it continue. His Department and the Government are defending a civil case taken by Ian Bailey and his partner, Jules Thomas, as we speak. The Government continues to defend that case and to allow the French authorities to come to our jurisdiction on the flimsiest of evidence provided by our own authorities that has been entirely dismantled. Of course, the 44-page critique by the DPP that was given to Ian Bailey's legal team and the Supreme Court and which was the basis upon which the court refused to extradite Mr. Bailey only came into the hands of his legal team because the previous DPP, Eamonn Barnes, realised that there was the basis for a serious miscarriage of justice. He knew from his time in 2001 about this ridiculous and appallingly flawed investigation and all the emerging issues around witnesses being coaxed and cajoled into giving evidence. That was all known about at the highest levels of the administration of justice in this State and it continues.

The Taoiseach must intervene in this case. He needs to bring in the Minister and ask him what he did through 2012. On three occasions in 2012, Ian Bailey's legal team wrote to the Minister about the failure of the Garda to co-operate with the investigation by GSOC. The Minister refused to intervene and to ensure that the documentation that GSOC required was given to it, yet the Minister intervened the following year when GSOC made public its absolute bewilderment and frustration about the failure of the Garda to co-operate in the Kieran Boylan affair so he could have intervened in the Ian Bailey case over those three letters sent to him but he refused to do so. He refused to intervene to sort out the issue of the Garda co-operating fully with GSOC and refused to deal with the implications of the Supreme Court case. He said he would consult with the Attorney General and nothing happened. That is the real scandal here.

It then continued into November 2013. The reality is that the Attorney General was briefed by the Garda Commissioner that the Garda was very concerned about the tapes that emerged due to the discovery order made against it arising from an application from Ian Bailey's legal team. There were major issues. It took four whole months for the Attorney General to meet the Taoiseach on that fateful Sunday and to brief him about it. So serious was this that the Taoiseach decided immediately to opt for a commission of investigation despite the fact that he opted for reviews in those other serious matters about which I learned earlier. That is the major question mark around the Minister and the way he handled one of the largest emerging scandals in the history of the State. I have no doubt that the full story of this scandal will be told over the next few years and that there will be major question marks for everybody involved.

The Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality debated this issue and welcomed the fact that a commission of investigation would be set up because it would have powers to compel witnesses and documentation and to make findings of fact - powers which are not possessed by the committee. We wanted to see the terms of reference altered in respect of the circumstances that led to the resignation, retirement, sacking or whatever one calls it of the Garda Commissioner; the handling of documentation by the Department of Justice and Equality; the length of time from November 2013 when the Garda Commissioner and the Garda set up a panel to look at this; the knowledge the Attorney General had; how it took that length of time; the circumstances around the decision; and the fateful visit by the Secretary General of the Department, Brian Purcell, who was sent out by the Taoiseach. Since then, sources close to the Commissioner have been briefing one of the leading journalists in this State and making it clear that the Garda Commissioner wanted to withdraw his comments made before the Committee of Public Accounts but that Department officials apparently advised him not to. Another issue is the visit and what was said during it and the reassurance the Commissioner may have wanted on the Tuesday morning. When he did not get it, he knew he had to go. It is very clear to anybody looking at this situation that he was sacked but there are major question marks over what led to that. Sources close to the Attorney General briefed the former editor of The Irish Times, Geraldine Kennedy. The paper contained front-page articles about the Attorney General's perspective for two days in a row. These briefings are being given to senior journalists from sources close to those involved but the people are not getting the full truth.

This is why we are very disappointed with the decision of the Government not to amend the initial draft of the terms of reference so as to front-load the political issues. These are the issues around the correspondence with the Department, the sequence of events from November 2013 through to the Taoiseach's meeting with the Attorney General and the retirement or resignation of the Garda Commissioner. Those issues should have been front-loaded and they should have been dealt with as much as possible in public session because the commission of investigation can make findings of fact and compel witnesses and documentation - everything our committee, with the best will in the world, cannot do. We are saying that the Government should have front-loaded those issues, including the Taoiseach's evidence, which can be dealt with very quickly. That should have been done in public and it could have been done within an eight-week period. This is the time the Government has given Mr. Justice Cooke and Mr. Sean Guerin SC to complete their reviews so it is a good template. Eight weeks is plenty of time but the Government has chosen to kick it to touch which fundamentally undermines the overall terms of reference. The Government knows very well that it is unlikely that this work will be completed by the end of this year. It will probably run into next year and possibly the year after that so it could take two years before we hear about what happened and how the Garda Commissioner came to issue his letter of retirement to the Government. That is the big issue at this stage.

There are so many questions. There are major questions for the Minister and questions about why the Government immediately opted for this commission of investigation. A cursory examination of the Dáil records will show that in 1994, the then Minister for Justice, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, was dealing with issues around recordings of conversations in Garda stations. She asked the then Garda Commissioner to report to her. Allegations around these practices also emerged in the Morris tribunal. While any suggestion that the privileged conversation between a person who has been arrested or detained and their solicitors is an immensely serious matter, the question is whether there was an attempt to take away from the real core issue. Our party humbly submits that the Ian Bailey affair, the way it has been handled and its implications for this Government constitute the big scandal. This is the one which cannot be denied or walked away from. I hope the Government deals with that and the issue of French investigating officers going back into west Cork to interview people, undermining our criminal justice system and showing disrespect for our processes in this State based on flimsy evidence. Will the Government deal with this issue and intervene? Will it continue to defend the indefensible in terms of the civil case taken by Ian Bailey and his partner, Jules Thomas? Will it continue to stand over all of that? Even at this late stage, will the Government consider the entirely reasonable proposition from the all-party Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality that the resignation of the Garda Commissioner, the handling of correspondence and all the meetings that took place be front-loaded?

I urge the Government to front-load the issues of the resignation of the Garda Commissioner, the handling of correspondence and the various meetings that happened. These could be dealt with in the eight week period. Let us get it over with, deal with it and get the full facts out before the public. We can then move on to the issue of the tapes which will undoubtedly take a considerable period of time.

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