Frances Fitzgerald warns against abandoning legal privilege

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald warned against abandoning legal privilege in the O'Higgins commission.

She said it would be “going down a very dangerous route’’ if they insisted, not that they could, that all legal privilege between clients and lawyers should be in the public domain.

“I think it is important we keep confidence in the commission structure, and I believe that keeping that confidentiality is part of that,’’ Ms Fitzgerald added.

Ms Fitzgerald was replying to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams described the media management of the O’Higgins report as “entirely unacceptable”.

The crimes involved in the investigation of the Cavan-Monaghan district included false imprisonment, murder, assault and sexual assault.

He said two senior Garda officers apparently claimed that Sgt Maurice McCabe admitted to them that he was motivated by malice and this claim was apparently made by Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan’s senior counsel.

But when it emerged that Sgt McCabe had a recording that disproved claims he had acted maliciously the claim was not proceeded with and did not appear in the report.

He asked if the Minister had spoken to the Garda Commissioner on the issues and if she had asked Ms O’Sullivan if she had instructed her legal team that Sgt McCabe admitted he acted with malice.

The Minister said it was extremely unfortunate that certain sections of the report were leaked to the media.

But she stressed that “neither I nor my department would have any involvement in the approach taken by the gardaí at the tribunal”.

Ms Fitzgerald added that the duty of confidentiality to the tribunal was not overridden by the duty of the Garda Commissioner to her as Minister.

She said “it would be completely wrong if I tried to influence the Garda approach.”

Mr Adams reminded the Minister that her predecessor had been embroiled in a whole series of scandals when two Garda whistleblowers raised issues of Garda malpractice.

“It is now a matter of fact that they were smeared and bullied as were a number of TDs.”

But the Minister said, “in this era of new politics it’s very important that I respect the law and the duty I have to it.”

The commission’s report “is the best description we could have possibly got to the various incidents”.

“The best service we can do to the victims is by dealing with the recommendations that were in that report. I believe that’s what the House should now be doing,” Ms Fitzgerald said.

‘Closure’

Meanwhile, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed called for “closure” on the controversy arguing that the publication of the commission’s report marked the “end of the matter”.

Speaking in Brussels at a meeting of EU farm ministers, Mr Creed said that Ms O’Sullivan and the various parties to the report had accepted its findings.

“I think we need closure on the issue. We’ve had a very eminent legal person who has published the commission’s report, and I understand that the commissioner has fully accepted the findings.

“I think that we need to accept that our legal system is adversarial by nature but what’s important is the administration of justice at the end of it. The report is in the public domain now and all the parties to the report are accepting the findings of the report, and as far as I’m concerned that’s the end of the matter.”

Earlier Labour TD Joan Burton called on the Ms O’ Sullivan to clarify “comments or statements made by her legal team” following reports that she instructed a barrister to “attack” Sgt McCabe’s motivation and character during private proceedings at the commission of investigation.