Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The context of this first Fennelly report is the controversies that engulfed the Garda Síochána and about which several Members of the House spent months jumping up and down criticising the former Garda Commissioner. The same Members now cry a river of crocodile tears about the manner of the former Commissioner's retirement.

The interim report of the Fennelly commission is careful to state several times that, after 15 months, it ventures no opinion as to the legality of the Garda station recordings, although it is possible to infer from the report that the Attorney General was expected to reach a conclusion on legality over one weekend. While we await the second Fennelly report, the House appears agreed on the potentially grave implications for the administration of justice of the capture of telephone traffic in and out of Garda stations, a fact unknown to the then Minister for Justice and Equality or Garda Commissioner apparently. We are fortunate to have a law officer advising the Government who spelled out those grave implications. What a pity we did not have a similarly patriotic watchdog to advise the Government of Deputy Micheál Martin of the grave economic implications of the Fianna Fáil Party policies being pursued before the country went over the cliff.

See this speech in context