Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Calling a spade a spade, that is what that means. The context is appalling. Does the Taoiseach know why? Surely his official would have been told by the Commissioner that he wrote about these issues two weeks ago to the Minister for Justice and Equality, that the Attorney General knew about them for four months and that officials in the Department of Justice and Equality knew about it. Forgive us all for thinking that the timing of all of this is extremely odd, coming at the end of the week that was in it. No one, it appears, saw any need to elevate this beyond what they were doing with it in terms of the Department officials, in terms of the case and how they were going to deal with the proceedings in a case that cannot be mentioned but which the Taoiseach's people have been briefing about all over the place. Yesterday the Taoiseach told me that he met the Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality. Did he not tell the Taoiseach that the Commissioner wrote to him two weeks ago? The Taoiseach said he met the Commissioner about the specific issue. The Taoiseach told me he was aware of this issue but nobody else was. There were briefings by Cabinet Ministers yesterday to a lot of people to the effect there was an inextricable link between the Commissioner's resignation and the emergence of this issue. The spectacle that is unfolding is not a good or a nice one. The Taoiseach took issue with me yesterday about it being a retirement or resignation. He sent a senior civil servant out to the Commissioner the day before the Cabinet meeting and-----

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