Senior figures in both Coalition parties have strongly defended the actions of Attorney General Maire Whelan in dealing with the emerging information about the recording and retention of telephone conversations in garda stations.
A senior Fine Gael source told the Irish Times yesterday that Ms Whelan is highly esteemed across the board in Government.
“She is not seen as having put a foot wrong on this issue,” he added.
Labour Party sources also defended the Attorney General's handling of the issue and disputed claims that she was aware of the nature of the problem for some time.
They said Ms Whelan had only become aware of the scale of the problem shortly before she informed Taoiseach Enda Kenny about it last Sunday.
Since the cabinet was informed of the position on Tuesday morning there has been a great deal of speculation about when the various actors in the drama were alerted to the problem.
What has been established is that former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan wrote to the Department of Justice March 10th saying that the practice of recording phone conversations in and out of garda stations had been going on for more than 20 years and he had ordered it to be stopped on November 27th, 2013.
The information had emerged in the course of the discovery of documents in a case being taken against the State by Ian Bailey who is alleging wrongful arrest in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier case.
In his letter to the Department Mr Callinan stated that he had consulted the Attorney General’s office on November 11th and established a working group to report to him on the issue.
Government sources were adamant yesterday that the working group did not involve the Attorney General and she was not informed of the issue on November 11th .
In the Dáil on Wednesday Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said that while the Attorney General was made aware of the existence of tapes and the possible existence of other tapes in the context of a particular case she had no knowledge at that time of the circumstances surrounding the making of tapes, the legal background to their being made, the content of such tapes or the number of such tapes.
Government sources said that it was only in the last week or so that the Attorney General became aware of the scale and nature of the problem.
Ms Whelan told Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the course of a routine phone conversation last Sunday that there was something she wanted to make him aware of but she was not prepared to talk about it on the phone.
The two met later on Sunday and Ms Whelan briefed the Taoiseach about the issue. Neither of them briefed cabinet colleagues about the issue on Sunday but on Monday Mr Kenny examined the issue and informed the Minister for Justice about it that evening.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore was not informed of the matter until shortly before the cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning and it came as a bombshell to Ministers of both parties who took some time to digest the implications.
