Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The whole sorry episode began at the Committee of Public Accounts when the then Commissioner described two whistleblowers as "disgusting". He went on to talk about "my force" and to be arrogant in a way which was symptomatic of a man who felt he was embedded in power and irremovable. What was wrong with the episode was that the Commissioner, Martin Callinan, should have been sacked the next morning. After he had said what he said in a public forum, undermining the work of good gardaí who had been judged in a gardaí kangaroo court guilty of something of which they were not guilty, the Government should have immediately sacked the Commissioner on that day. Instead, it spent months defending him, going into political contortions to do so. At the end, the episode occurred, which we are discussing today, the subject of the vote of confidence.

The Government decided that because he was politically disposable and too hot to carry politically, he would then be fired. The Government fired him in a way which was obviously unacceptable. It was against every protocol known and, possibly, against the law, given that he was fired without the consent of the Cabinet, and behind closed doors. It was typical of what happens in the Government, given that the same happened to the former Minister for Justice and Equality, who made mistake after mistake but was fired only when he became too hot to carry politically. It is part of a pattern of the Government continually using and abusing the system to gain political kudos and capital for itself and disposing of people at the wrong time, possible unconstitutionally, when they become politically disposable.

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