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

The most recent anonymous briefing says that they were scared that tapes were about to be destroyed. In reality, they received a briefing from the Attorney General and Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality, both of whom knew - as the letter of 10 March stated - that the tapes were "Now stored securely in Garda Headquarters pending the finalisation of legal advice". The inescapable conclusion is that the decision to send his most senior official to the former Commissioner's home on Monday evening last was influenced by the wish to make the latter the sole focus of attention. For a week previous to that meeting, political sources had each day worked to take the attention away from the Minister and place it onto former Commissioner Callinan alone. Newspapers were full of quotes from Ministers willing to talk about his entirely wrong statement about the whistleblowers to the Committee of Public Accounts. When the tapes issue emerged, the reaction of the Minister and Taoiseach was entirely driven by the wider context of wanting the crisis to go away and to protect the Minister.

See this speech in context