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[From top: Jack McGrath, Ian Madigan and Brian O’Driscoll; Cian Healy with Holly Carpenter;  Leo Vardkar and Brian O’Driscoll; from left: Mary Scott,, Aoife Reddan,, Kimberlee Ross,, Sophie Marren and Hollie Carpenter; Jack McGrath, Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, Fergus McFadden and Rob Kearney with Moss Mooney, age 8 and  a team shot..

Scenes from the reception in honour of the The RBS 6 Nations Championship winning Irish Rugby Team at Farmleigh House, Phoenix Park, Dublin hosted by sports minister Leo Varadkar and junior minister Michael Ring .

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

white
[Former Detective Sergeant John White, leaving the Morris Tribunal, Dublin in 2005 and who was subsequently dismissed from An Garda Síochána. The Morris Tribunal concluded Mr White had planted a shotgun at a Travellers’ camp in Burnfoot, Co. Donegal in May 1998 in order to arrest seven innocent people for questioning about the killing of pensioner Edward Fitzmaurice in his Mayo home two weeks earlier. It also concluded he induced Raphoe man Bernard Conlonto be found after hours drinking on the premises of Frankie’s nightclub, owned by the McBreartys, in Raphoe in August 1997 – for the purposes of prosecuting Frank McBrearty Snr.]

A prominent Donegal solicitor has called for the findings of the Morris Tribunal to be revisited in the wake of the revelations about the widespread recording of phone calls to and from Garda stations.
Paudge Dorrian, who went public with claims in 2001 that conversations between solicitors and their clients were being recorded at Letterkenny Garda Station, has made the call.
Mr. Dorrian said that the revelations about the recording of phone calls vindicates himself and his client, former Garda sergeant John White, who was the source of the allegations.
“What we are looking at we feel that the entire history of the Tribunal and other matters should now be revisited by an independent tribunal, led preferably by a High Court judge from a different jurisdiction,” he said.

Donegal solicitor calls for Morris Tribunal review in wake of recording at Garda stations revelations (Donegal Democrat)

Graham Hughes/Photocall Ireland

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shatt

Alan Shatter in opposition, questions the Minister for Justice [John O’Donoghue] on bugging in Garda stations (May 23 2001) during an exchange concerning  the McBrearty scandal in Donegal.

Dail Debates (Oireacthas.ie)

Thanks Ronan Emmett and Paul Reynolds

Meanwhile…

“Chairman, at this stage it would be appropriate for the senior Garda authority to come clean in relation to bugging. It cannot be covered up. There are at least two hundred men alive at the moment, and women, probably a lot more, who know exactly what went on over the years, some of them are still serving in the job, and to try and cover it up on a nationwide scale, it can’t be done. It just can’t be done. It did happen. The equipment was bought and purchased at extensive cost to do it. It was not a universal approach, in certain cases they were done and it’s not just down to interview rooms. It’s houses, cars, apartments and phones. And it’s done illegally, totally illegally, and the senior Garda authority know this is the case.”

Garda John White during the subsequent Morris tribunal

(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

daly[Clare Daly and Mick Wallace this afternoon]

Responding to Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s statement to the Dail.

“To mishandle one case might be regarded as unfortunate, and to mishandle two may look like carelessness, but after mishandling six or seven serious scenarios it is time for the Minister to go. His attempt to normalise the latest crisis as no big deal has a shamefully familiar ring.

When is the Government going to realise that we have a crisis of policing in this State? His reactionary response was to say that he would establish an independent Garda authority, even though he laughed Deputy Wallace out of court when he introduced legislation to that effect last year. That is not a genuine attempt at reform.

The Minister stated that the reason this information is now being acted on is that serious information was likely to come into the public domain regarding a horrendous miscarriage of justice and the fitting up of two citizens.

That is clearly a serious and, sadly, all-too-familiar allegation. We have had heard many cases involving people who were wrongly treated by some members of An Garda Síochána.

It is also appalling that the recordings were made. It is not possible to address that issue in detail in the context of breaches of privacy, but the central issues arising are the Minister’s brazenness and barefaced denials, and the Government’s serious mistake in continuing to back him. It is not credible that he did not know.

On 21 May 2013 he told this House that the Commissioner had a duty to tell him about Deputy Wallace’s non-event, but now he is saying the Commissioner did not have a duty to tell him about the most recent issue and he does not have a problem with that.

He berated GSOC for not telling him about the bugging. He listed every piece of legislation he could think of.

Today he devoted several minutes of his speech to explaining why GSOC did not have to inform him and why he does not have a problem with that. Either he does not realise how serious this issue is or he is covering up. Either way, his position is not credible.

We are presiding over a dysfunctional police force. It is undermining the confidence of decent gardaí and the citizens. This is why the Garda Commissioner had no alternative to resigning. When is the penny going to drop with the Minister that he must do the same?

These are not isolated incidents; they are indicative of a systemic problem. None of the mechanisms put in place after the Morris tribunal has worked.

We need a root-and-branch review but, unfortunately, we cannot do that while those at the top are contaminating the process. At this stage, the Minister has contaminated the process beyond his sell-by date.”

Independent TD Clare Daly this afternoon in the Dail

Earlier: Shatter’s Statement

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