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PB May-June 2023 May-June 2023 25
Neither Doyle nor Licken replied when queried
directly by Village about how they have
discharged their duties to investigate the leaks.
The Department of Tourism did issue a
response that: “The Department is not aware of
the Memorandum on the Short-Term Tourism
Letting Bill being provided to a third party”.
Perversely, in a follow-up e-mail, the
department’s press oce declined to confirm on
behalf of Licken that she personally is not aware
of the Memorandum on the Short-Term Tourism
Letting Bill being provided to a third party.
Both Licken and the Department of Tourism
were provided with a link and references to the
Irish Times story and Village’s e-mail quoted the
relevant text, so they would have been aware of
the Irish Times’ claims to have read the
government documents. It is as if Licken does not
believe that the Irish Times read her department’s
memorandum as it claims. Yet the Irish Times had
no reason to make this up.
Whoever has leaked these two memoranda for
government has placed both Doyle and Licken in
invidious positions. They have a close working
relationship with their respective ministers and a
professional duty (under section 4 (1) (d)) to
advise them on policy matters on all matters that
relate to their departments. Compromisingly it is
clear that there is no appetite to investigate the
leak of cabinet documents for fear of where it
might lead and what embarrassment it might
cause. However, in addition to these personal,
professional and political loyalties, Doyle and
Licken have a higher loyalty to ensure that the
proper operation of government is not
undermined and that the law concerning the
confidentiality of cabinet papers is enforced.
Scheme for the Registration of Short-Term Tourist
Letting Bill 2022 which was submitted by the
Minister for Tourism to the Cabinet meeting of 7
December 2022.
The law is embarrassingly clear on this matter.
The Seventeenth amendment to the Constitution,
passed in a referendum in 1997, provides that:
“The confidentiality of discussions at meetings
of the Government [In this context Government
means Cabinet] shall be respected in all
circumstances save only where the High Court
determines that disclosure should be made in
respect of a particular matter…”.
So, in essence Cabinet confidentially “shall be
respected in all circumstances”. As recently as
last year, the High Court confirmed that “[Cabinet
meetings] and their records are required to be
private and confidential”.
The purpose of Cabinet confidentiality is to
encourage Ministers to speak freely without risk of
their stance leaking or undermining decisions
deemed collective. Clearly the same imperative
applies to memorandums which, it is implied, have
the support of the Minister who submits them.
Section 2.23 of the Cabinet Handbook, a guide
which always recognises collective responsibility,
states that: “If ever a breach of security occurs, a
special investigation should be initiated by the
Secretary General of the author Department, with
the Garda Síochána being called in to assist as
necessary”. There is no nonsense of mays or
mights here, it is an injunction to the Secretary
General: “should”. In this case the Secretary
General of the authoring department is Katherine
Licken of the Department of Tourism.
Similarly, the Secretary General of the
Department of Housing, Local Government and
Heritage, Graham Doyle, should investigate the
leak of 8 March.
I
n December, Village published an online
story about the leak of confidential cabinet
documents to the Irish Times but three
months, (to the day), later another leak of
another memorandum to government was
the basis of another story in the same newspaper.
That first leak was quoted extensively in an
article published on 8 December 2022 which ran
under the headline ‘Minister wanted new laws to
force short term lettings into private market
introduced immediately’. The second story
appeared on 8 March 2023 with the title:
‘Attorney General warned ‘substantial evidence’
needed to extend eviction ban’.
In both instances, the Irish Times made it
explicit that the actual documents themselves
had been divulged. On 8 December political
correspondent, Jack Horgan-Jones, wrote: “In
observations on the new law submitted to
Cabinet and seen by the Irish Times...” and in an
8 March article written by four of its journalists it
stated: “The Cabinet was also told, in a memo
seen by the Irish Times...”[emphasis added]. The
second story went on to reveal that this memo
had been submitted to Cabinet by the Minister for
Housing, Darragh O’Brien, on 7 March 2022.
Both articles draw distinctions between the
documents that were leaked and information
about the contents of other government papers
and Cabinet discussions which they attribute to
“sources” or “senior sources” (presumably this
is the dierence between private briefings from
ministers’ special advisors and ones directly from
the ministers themselves).
The Department of the Taoiseach confirmed to
Village that the first leak was part of a
Memorandum for Government entitled General
It is as if Katherine Licken, Secretary General of the Department of Tourism,
does not believe that the Irish Times read her department’s memorandum
as it claims, leaving her obliged to investigate an unlawful leak. Yet the Irish
Times had no reason to make this up
No appetite from Sec Gens to
apply the law on Cabinet leaks
Housing and Tourism Departments leak
with abandon, in breach of Constitution,
law and Cabinet handbook
By J Vivian Cooke
Secs Generl
POLITICS
