Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I might be able to cut my contribution somewhat short if that will help. The Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Children and Youth Affairs have succeeded in turning what should have been a fairly straightforward process into what can only be described as a shambles. The activity, claim and counterclaim, truth and mistruth, the discussions that took place and those which did not, the "Dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi" over the last seven days have been nothing short of shambolic. Those of us who have studied politics in recent history will be familiar with the term "GUBU". A friend of mine described this to me at the weekend as "turbo GUBU". It is almost unbelievable. It is highly unlikely that much of what has been said can be accepted by the Irish people. It should have been a fairly straightforward process to establish an appropriate inquiry to look into the matters which were the subject of the protected disclosures, those identified in particular by Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill and, indeed, the other information that was clearly available to the Government in the claims made and the investigation to which Sergeant McCabe was subjected. For the Government to turn something so straightforward into such a mess speaks volumes for the lack of coherence, breakdown in communication and, I suspect, lack of trust between Ministers. A number of Government colleagues said over the weekend that they had discussions on occasion and spoke about things but never really got to the nub of the matter. That is hard to take. It certainly does not speak well for a functioning democracy. Certainly, it does not speak well for a functioning Government that the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, is going to resolve the issues throughout rural Ireland.

The irony is not lost on anyone, however, that we are here tonight discussing a motion at the behest of Sinn Féin with its crocodile tears for An Garda Síochána, due process and whistleblowers. I suspect most right-minded and right-thinking Irish people agree. I am not going to go through the gory details but the lads and ladies in Sinn Féin know how they dealt with whistleblowers and gardaí in the past. I am glad they have seen the light and are moving away from that but it is somewhat ironic that they seek to lecture those of us who have been around electoral democratic politics for quite some time.

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