This afternoon.
Further to the Irish Examiner‘s exclusive this morning…
…revealing documents released to Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty (above questioning the Tanaiste last November) show that Mr Varadkar sought to have a hard copy of the GP pay deal between the Government and the irish medical organisation (IMO) waiting for him as he emerged from the Government jet around the same time he was looking for IMO boss Maitiú Ó Tuathail’s home address.
Deputy Doherty said:
“This shows the extreme lengths that he went to in order to leak a confidential document to his friend. Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that he sought this document for his personal use, but these revelations show that he was making arrangements to leak it before he even had it in his possession.”
Leo Varadkar is facing calls to resign over the criminal investigation into his leak of a private document https://t.co/sS73652ge0
— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) March 25, 2021
there’ll be no ousting him. we’re about to be shown once again, that he can do whatever he wants and not face consequences. no one in power wants him out, and the Gardai don’t want to bring him down. FG usually sit out scandals, and it works, this one came back, but they’ll just sit it out again.
we also get to see.. again .. that lying in the Dail is perfectly acceptable in the eyes of the state.
Any notions of high office in the EU, UN etc. have been well and truly smacked down. The best he can look forward to is an appearance on some reality TV show.
Oireachtas TV.
The Late Late ? He’d fit right in.
@giggidy .. I didn’t think of that. Varadkar would have high expectations for himself rising in EU ranks. I hope this does lay rest to that at least. He won’t face punishment here, but if he could suffer that consequence it would be something. Not much, but something.
Yawn. Bull. This is one of your tiresome tropes GiggidyPox.
Christine Lagarde? See her back story, dear.
Your “contributions” are better suited to Twitter not adult political debate.
Still, I wouldn’t be mad if Simon Coveney or Pascal took the reins. It’d drive you potty!
Lol.
I knew you couldn’t resist. I own you. You haven’t had good outings here recently. And then you come out with the above drivel. Ha haaaa
But you’re a good one to talk aren’t you?. On a thread a couple of days ago, people here were sending good wishes to another poster on the birth of her daughter. And what was your contribution? No – it wasn’t wishing her and her daughter anything (in fact no well wishes at all) – it was an attack on other posters. https://www.broadsheet.ie/2021/03/21/hold-on-3/#comment-2302144
Now, kindly crawl back under the rock from whence you forced yourself. You know what you are.
Nope. Repeat offenders, politicians, and violent 15-year old skangers seem to face 0 repercussions for anything they do. Makes you wonder why Phil Hogan and all the agriculture ministers weren’t bullet proof.
that’s exactly it, JEH. Those demographics seem to do what they want.
It seems wrong that we the people, having consistently and knowingly elected our representatives, knowing their history of dodgy dealing, corruption and general cuteness, should then become all righteous and indignant and would want them to behave in ways which would render them unelectable. We clearly like our politicians just as they are. Meanwhile, have I mentioned the climate yet? Later.
Dey get de roooad fixed.
According to his email, seeking the agreement to be delivered to him at Baldonnell, he says he’d already got a copy of it from Simon Harris, but put it into the recycling. That kinda contradicts Simon Harris’s version, which was that he, SH, was looking for a copy and couldn’t get one at the time.
The important factor here is the future of how this State is governed. Is it to be governed by laws of the land, or by would-be despots?
Not really.
I don’t know what you work at, but if you’ve ever worked on a shared document you’ll see they go through many versions before finalised.
This agreement is being written about and discussed as if it was a singular object rather than a process that was ongoing.
The reported correspondence refer to diffrent versions when they say “latest” or the final version.
I think people are blinding themselves into seeing what they would like to be able to see, rather than what is actually in front of them.
Leo will end his career with his mouth but this won’t be it.
The damning evidence is that he wanted a hard copy. Even a low level PS peon like myself can access documents on shared drives, track edits and amendments, email them on to whoever and all this leaves an electronic footprint that can be traced back to me. No such scrutiny for a version printed out by some peon to give to the then Taoiseach. If Leo had emailed the doc to his friend, the leak would have been obvious and traceable.which is why a hard copy, printed by someone else, was needed.
That may be a point if there is no history in requesting hard copies for review markup. There’s plenty who struggle to review on screen
https://politics.ie/attachments/1616692666871-png.161062/
The draft document is clearly labelled “confidential not for circulation”. If I’d printed out, or photocopied a document with that label and sent it onto a friend who might be interested in reading it before the document was finalised, would you think I’d done something wrong or illegal?
If it’s illegal he’ll be prosecuted
That’s not what I asked.
…and delivered to his home address. You’re forgetting that bit.
How did Taoiseach get this personal information? the Guards? Revenue?
Does he have access to all our personal addresses? Shudder and indeed creepy AF.
I dunno; either
(a) they were really close friends and he already had is address (you know, like for Christmas cards and stuff); or
(b) they weren’t that close and Varadkar asked him for his home address; (shock horror)!!
Maybe he hand-delivered it.
I don’t see how that is relevant.
Varadkar didn’t try to hide what he was doing. There would be electronic trails of his (advisers) request for a paper copy. He never denied sending the document to his friend.
He didn’t announce it either. It was hidden until Village Magazine revealed it. So, yes he did hide it.
He knowingly broke the Official Secrets Act, as a civil servant it is drilled into you that doing this is a sackable offence at a minimum and someone in his position is well aware of this, but clearly he thought he was above it.
He’s not being investigated under the Official Secrets Act though
Yet
And that says more about this government than anything else, he should be
You’re assuming there is guilt under the act due to its title and what you would like it to do. What matters is what it does do.
But did he break the Official Secrets Act?
A civil servant can’t release confidential information unless they have authority to do so. Who has authority to do this? Well the minister can authorise the release of any document.
The legal question (as i see it) is does the Taoiseach (as the Minister’s boss) have equivalent authority as the minister.
If anyone – singularly, or as a group, who have signed confidentiality agreements work on a document which is confidential, then any leaking of it (regardless of the version) is illegal. If it’s a state document, it’s both illegal and contrary to the official secrets act if State personnel who have signed the Official Secrets Act are involved in it’s leaking.
Is OK saying things are illegal, but that means’ they are “against the law.”
And the law often doesn’t say what people think it does.
He’s not being investigated under the official secrets act.
Lookit, no one has reason to believe he’s a bigger bollix than me but people are whipping themselves up into a happy frenzy over something that isn’t nearly as nefarious, or probably illegal, as they wish.
Twitter politics bulsh
The Official Secrets Act 1963 makes it a criminal offence for persons who hold public office to disclose secret official information.
So – what criminality would you think is being investigated by this criminal investigation?
All due respect
contract agreements with Lobby Groups are hardly subject to the Official Secrets Act
@V I’m not sure GiggidyPox is at all interested in these details. Anything other than “Crooked Leo eats babies” will meet with the usual GiggidyPox meltdown.
As per all of the reports, he is being investigate under the Corruption Act.
You can therefore assume people who are more experienced than me or you spent more time than me or you determining that he didn’t breach the Secrets Act.
See axelf below.
@jimmy
Not all of the reports.
‘According to reports, Minister Simon Harris has provided a written statement to gardai, while the leak is being investigated to see if it breaches the Official Secrets Act.’
https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/leo-varadkar-leak-investigation-turned-20143725
@Jimmy
or
“The first objective of this inquiry – and gardaí say that this is no different to any other investigation – will be to establish if there is evidence that Mr Varadkar breeched the Official Secrets Act or any other part of the criminal code.”
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/explainer-garda-investigation-into-leo-varadkars-gp-document-leak-likely-to-take-several-months-40205904.html
Experienced folk investigating a potential breach of The Official Secrets Act.
“The Official Secrets Act 1963 makes it a criminal offence for persons who hold public office to disclose secret official information.”
not quite correct.
The Official Secrets Act 1963 makes it a criminal offence for persons who hold public office to disclose secret official information without proper authority.
The relevant legislation says:
4.—(1) A person shall not communicate any official information to any other person unless he is duly authorised to do so or does so in the course of and in accordance with his duties as the holder of a public office or when it is his duty in the interest of the State to communicate it.
[…]
(4) In this section “duly authorised” means authorised by a Minister or State authority or by some person authorised in that behalf by a Minister or State authority.
and
“Minister” means a member of the Government;
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1963/act/1/enacted/en/print
@frilly
the agreement is clearly within the scope of the act as it was marked confidential
official information” means any secret official code word or password, and any sketch, plan, model, article, note, document or information which is secret or confidential or is expressed to be either and which is or has been in the possession, custody or control of a holder of a public office, or to which he has or had access, by virtue of his office, and includes information recorded by film or magnetic tape or by any other recording medium;
mad for the ride
I had forgotten just how well Pearse Doherty questioned Varadker at the time, bravo sir!
you can tell from Varadker’s fidgetey back pedalling body language that he knows full well the potential gravity involved and that he’s most likely in some sort of major trouble, guilty as fupp
uncomfortable viewing, a bit like the original The Office
agree with the above, although he’s a listing ship he won’t be prosecuted nor sacked…just too big to fail in the context of this FFG the change that people voted for mashup power project despite getting found out
He said he placed the original document in his recycle bin. Was it not possible for him to retrieve that document from the recycle bin?
It’s not adding up though. Simon Harris said he couldn’t get a copy of this document, but Varadkar says that he got one from Simon Harris which he put in the recycling bin after reading it. So he’s calling his party colleague a liar (and you could see Harris’ reaction in the video clip above, mask or no mask)
(Varadkar then says that he requested the document because he wanted to read it again)