Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Nobody seems any wiser this afternoon as to when the Tánaiste and then Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, knew of the plan to discredit Maurice McCabe at the O'Higgins commission. The horrendous impact of the disgusting behaviour by those who have been protected by Government on Maurice McCabe and his family is now widely known. Of course, it is not only Maurice McCabe. It is also all of those who did not have the foresight and good fortune to tape the contents of meetings they had with those who set out to discredit them; all of those who have been subject to lies, innuendo and intimidation; and all of those who lost out on promotions just because they questioned practices they knew to be wrong.

Once again we see today that the spectacular waste of money that is the strategic communications unit, a Government unit which is supposed to slickly get news out to the public, has suddenly gone silent at a key time.The Taoiseach has provided little or no clarity in the Dáil today. We have to remember that all of this has come to light because of the work of good investigative journalists. We certainly owe a debt of gratitude to them. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste did not volunteer this information.

Serious questions remain. How did the Tánaiste, in her then capacity as Minister for Justice and Equality, read an email alleging serious wrongdoings without taking action on foot of it? How does she remember reading it in the first place? Where was this email for the past two and a half years? The Taoiseach has continually backed up the entire Department of Justice and Equality in defence of the former Minister for Justice and Equality and current Tánaiste. Three years have passed since he described the Department of Justice and Equality as "not fit for purpose". Under the stewardship of Fine Gael, which likes to call itself the law and order party, the Department of Justice and Equality has lost two Garda Commissioners, two Secretaries General and two Ministers inside two years. One could not make it up. It has been said that Sinn Féin is not fit for Government.