Attorney General Máire Whelan and Taoiseach Enda Kenny
We know from repeated experience that unaccountable power makes for bad governance. We see bad governance at work in the Fennelly report and we see it again in the fiasco of the Siteserv inquiry. A common thread is the pompous pretence that the AG is a special creature, above politics and above accountability. This new debacle must be a catalyst for legislation to make the AG answerable for her actions. Or would that have trouble getting past the AG as well?
Time to make Attorney General answerable for actions (Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times)
More serious by far is the failure of the Government’s legal adviser to spot a heretofore untouched issue. Surely that is the meat and drink of advising government of its legal duties. Unfortunately for the office holder, Máire Whelan, this is not the first controversy into which she has walked. Her role in the run-up to the departure of then Garda commissioner Martin Callinan last year came in for serious criticism on publication of the Fennelly commission report.
The commission did finally get around last week to concluding that the matters of privilege and confidentiality would impede a proper investigation. Why, it might well be asked, did it take so long? Surely it should have been obvious before now.
In a clear assessment in a 77- page determination seen by The Irish Times, Mr Justice Cregan says that the 2004 Act does not give him any express power to rule that the public interest can overrule the right to confidentiality.
He also argues that as a “creature of statute” the Commission has inherent power to engage in such a “balancing exercise of whether the private duty of confidentiality should be outweighed by a public interest in disclosure,” adding that in his view these were matters “ for the courts” to decide.
200,000 pages of IBRC evidence that cannot be used (Cliff Taylor, irish Times)
(RollingNews.ie)
As a country of people united we have to get these parasites out of power asap.
…the voices of the AG, the Garda Commissioner, even the President have been silenced or manipulated but I’m not sure the manipulators have all been elected..
the president hasn’t be silenced or manipulated… he is showing his true colours.
backing labour to the hilt as a labour man
enjoying the largess attached to his position…in fairness I don’t blame him for this but merely to point out that he is doing other things now and is not the TD he used to be.
The idea that he was going to continue his quest to rid the world of michael graham into the Aras was a false one. he knows who pays for his meals…
Perhaps but more immediately Whelan should resign.
There were NO mistakes made here.
It was planned that way from the start. No one, especially one certain individual, is guilty of anything.
How can the attorney general NOT be politically aligned when they are appointed by the sitting government.
It’s not like they are going to appoint someone with contrarion opinions.
Now, please move along there, nothing to see here.
I’m starting to think it was a whole big setup. For a simple reason that come election time or thereabouts, labour will be allowed to pull the plug and safe face and a few election seats
That or the 2nd opinion. They are all idiots
That photo could have been taken in a/the wax works museum.
Its straight out of a Civil Service Christmas party album. Pure west of Ireland pinched face look with no ambition bar a great pension.
I try not to comment on women’s appearance, it’s totally not relevant.
But come on, that woman’s consultation with her wardrobe manager and hair stylist went along the lines “I wanna be serving some retconned female catholic prelate REALNESS”
She’s a barrister, it’s a collarless shirt. It looks slightly weird with no tabs.
It’s looks slightly weird with or without tabs in the 21st century.
I’m not convinced she has been an effective AG but I actuallly kinda like her austere dress style.
It shows a bit more thought & care than Kenny for example.
This the lawyer who advised Labour in opposition when their policy was to scrap upward only rent reviews.
Only to turn around on assuming office and tell them it was unconstitutional. You get the advice you pay for.
As perricrisptayto said there was no mistake. This one is a mere stooge anyway. Her Wiki page reads like she took every appointment by political agreement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1ire_Whelan
I’m in agreement with O’Toole here…
Since she took the role it’s like Marie Whelan has been a sacred cow in terms being above reproach.
I’d imagine gender politics is the reason but also that she hails from the labour ranks of trendy liberals whose ilk infest huge portions of the media.
as paddy cosgrove foudn tio his cost , you may be a media darling but when the corridors of power turn against you their pals in the media will follow suit quicksmart….can let decency get in the way of a free supper and sound bite….eh…
media w&ankers….
Why did I read this all staggered in my head?
i wrote it staggered in my head cos I was interupted by work people and my the end i was dying for a wee….hence the spelling errors.
we must have a connection…
Yeah, lets shak… wait, did you wash your hands?
for sure…they have one of those signs that shames you into washing in the jacks here.
Shake away!
She’s a replicant. Bureaucratic model, Sector 4, recently upgraded to include glasses and pant suit.
+LOL
That pic encapsulates everything that is wrong with the justice system.
Makes Eamon Gilmore’s revelation that he fought to have her appointed seem embarassing now. Unless that revelation was designed to put some distance between her and Kenny.
Borderline
Feel like I’m going to lose my
Mind
You keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline