Why did Callinan and Kenny not tell Shatter?

April/May VILLAGE

HE chances of ﬁnding wreckage from Malaysia

Airlines MH would appear to be far greater

than discovering any semblance of plausibility in

the Government’s account of recent events surrounding

An Garda Síochána.

To swallow the Fine Gael/Labour story requires – to

use the original phrase from Coleridge – “the willing

suspension of disbelief”. The tale that the Taoiseach

and Tánaiste would have us believe may lack the literary

greatness of the Ancient Mariner, but it more than makes

up for it in its outlandishness. Let’s try to simplify mat-

ters by focussing on one aspect: the role of the Secretary

General in the Department of Justice. Most people who

have ever had the privilege of serving in Government

cannot fathom how a Sec Gen could behave in such an

unaccountable way. We are told that Mr Purcell did not

immediately pass on a vital letter to his Minister, when

the Commissioner requested him to do so. Was there no

conversation and no text or email in this era of instant

communication? We have also been told that a meeting

took place between the Garda Commissioner and oﬃcials

from the Justice Department and the Attorney General’s

oﬃce to discuss the fall out from the Tapes issue, but

again, apparently, none of them said a word to Minister

Shatter. They just didn’t feel it appropriate to keep him

in the loop. But the story now takes a very unexpected

turn.

The Taoiseach, without reference to his Minister for

Justice, contacts the Sec Gen and asks him to visit the

embattled Commissioner in his home. So far, so bizarre.

But just when you think it can’t get any more compli-

cated, the thick plottens. According to sources close to

the Commissioner (who have become talkative lately)

Mr Callinan was asked not to withdraw the derogatory

remarks he made regarding the whistleblowers at the

PAC. These a re the rema rks th at Leo Varadkar a nd Labou r

Ministers had asked him speciﬁcally to withdraw.

Varadkar has now found that, while it may be easy to

earn plaudits for opening a can of worms, it’s impossible

to squish all of the worms back into the can once you’ve

opened it. Expressing ‘absolute conﬁdence ‘ in Minister

Shatter isn’t going to do it. And Labour’s backing for

Minister Shatter won’t be enough either, because even-

tually the suspension of disbelief becomes impossible.

Let’s return brieﬂy to the Sec Gen (it’s easy to digress in

this saga). We’ve been told that he did not tell his Minister

in advance about his crucial meeting with Commissioner

Callinan; nor did the Taoiseach communicate with the

line Minister on the issue. Why did neither of them feel it

necessary to contact Minister Shatter? If the full account

given by the government is true – and let’s again sus-

pend disbelief and assume that it is – then we have a

dysfunctional Department of Justice and a dysfunctional

Government. Why the Taoiseach, who has been rela-

tively surefooted until now, would centre himself in the

controversy is not clear. For the ﬁrst time in his tenure,

there is a sense of foreboding in the cabinet and on the

backbenches. Nothing concentrates the mind of a poli-

tician more than the prospect of losing votes.

Government TDs who have been out on the canvass

with local election candidates know that this is a bad one.

The public aren’t buying it, and Minister Shatter (per-

haps to the relief of Ministers Hogan and Reilly) has now

become a lightning rod for discontent. There is no relief

in sight. A government that has excelled in spin now ﬁnds

that factions and individuals are spinning their own ver-

sions. Thus we have Labour sources telling us that they

put one over on Shatter by getting a new Garda author-

ity, while the Guards continue to brief certain favoured

correspondents.

And who beneﬁts from all of this chaos? Well, Micheál

Martin and Niall Collins have done well, as have the

United Left Alliance, but the big winners – as I’ve said

many times in this column – will be Sinn Féin. A wise

old political observer here in Ringsend recently asked

me if had I noticed how the Sinn Féin representatives

had begun to speak ‘like barristers.’ It was intended as

a compliment. The point is that increasingly the middle

classes can identify with the well spoken and respect-

able Shinners. Just watch as they make big inroads into

the leafy suburbs in the local elections..

The government parties will inevitably lose seats. That

won’t be the main worry of the wiser heads in Cabinet.

They know that the public’s gullibility has its limits and

that eventually the Government’s credibility will be shot.

The sacking of the Commissioner may have seemed to

be politically expedient, but he’s now hanging like

Coleridge’s Albatross, around Enda’s neck. •

Why did Callinan and

Kenny not tell Shatter?

Sinn Féin is

beneﬁtting from

the suspension

of disbelief

John Gormley

OPINION

STATE OF PLAY