Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I understand fully the motivation of Sinn Féin in tabling the motion. Given that the motion of no confidence was cancelled, it was entirely appropriate that we would discuss these justice issues. However, like Deputy Wallace, I do not see any need to support a change in the terms of reference. I must say, and I am not talking about Sinn Féin, that some of the ignorance that has been on display over the past two weeks in the public domain and in here regarding these issues has been shocking. The idea that what went on could have gone on without the knowledge of the Department of Justice and Equality and people in here standing up and acting surprised about that constitute a condemnation of where they have been and their lack of engagement around these serious issues over the past period. A member of the public sent me an email yesterday in which she reminded me of Abraham Lincoln's definition of a hypocrite, which I think is a very good one. He said a hypocrite was the man who murdered his parents and then pleaded for mercy on the grounds that he was an orphan. That is what we have seen here. People who are culpable in what went on over the past number of years have stood up and portrayed themselves as champions of justice, Maurice McCabe and whistleblowers inside An Garda Síochána. It makes us utterly sick to witness some of it. Let us be clear. Deputy O'Callaghan said that when the information came out in May 2016, we did not know if it was true or not. We did know it was true. At that time, Fianna Fáil chose to close its ears because it was politically expedient for it. The Labour Party chose to stand up full square 100% behind Nóirín O'Sullivan. At that time, we were already on the record as warning the former Minister that she would be brought down by the former Commissioner. Eighteen times prior to that, we raised issues regarding the way Garda whistleblowers were being treated behind the scenes despite what was being said in public. These chickens have very firmly come home to roost. It is completely wrong of people who supported the former Commissioner full square at that time to turn around and blame the former Minister for not acting on that information in 2015. The terms of reference and the role of the Department and the Minister were well articulated here in the discussions around the commission of investigation originally and what became the Charleton tribunal so it is utterly wrong of Deputy O'Callaghan to say it was unlikely that Mr. Justice Charleton would have investigated these issues. That is just wrong. Of course, he was going to investigate them. The terms of reference specifically provide for it. As Deputy Wallace said, we wrote to him on 10 March this year and asked him to include them but I do not think we needed to because having seen him conducting himself in previous cases he handled such as pyrite cases and having attended the tribunal, I can say that he is an incredibly capable individual. We do not need to tell him how to do his job.

There are huge issues of dysfunctionality in the Department of Justice and Equality that will continue outside the scope of this. We need an opportunity in here and for that, I am glad Sinn Féin did table a justice motion but there is no need to extend the terms of reference. They are well provided for in this case and I wish Mr. Justice Charleton well.

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