Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We agree absolutely agree that there should be a Legislature that can conduct business in a way that is seen to be objective. We do not want one in which a Minister can use his privileges to abuse the reputation of a servant of the State. That is what has happened here and what we want an apology for. We are not politicising this. The Minister for Justice and Equality clearly abused the privileges of his office to try to sully the reputation of the man whose intervention has led to all the work the Minister Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has just laid out. Why does he not say "Sorry"? Is it not in his dictionary? He has committed a serious wrong, and it has been proven by the Garda Inspectorate that the evidence of Garda McCabe is credible.

The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, sees himself as a champion of trying to change the culture in the health service and encouraging staff to say sorry. Why is the Taoiseach not forcing a Minister who abuses his office in this House and on the national airwaves to apologise? The army of spin doctors around the Taoiseach is portraying him as a mighty mouse this week because of Mr. Frank Flannery's stepping aside, but it seems he is a church mouse in the case of the Minister for Justice and Equality. Surely the latter owes an apology to Sergeant McCabe for trying to destroy his reputation using the privilege of this House.

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