Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan has been asked if there was contact between his department and former Garda commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan around the time whistleblower Maurice McCabe was challenged during a State inquiry.
Labour TD Alan Kelly has tabled a series of Dáil questions asking about the circumstances surrounding Sgt McCabe’s evidence to the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation, which examined claims of Garda corruption.
Some of the issues covered by the O’Higgins Commission are now being investigated by the Charleton Tribunal, which is examining if a smear campaign was operated against Sgt McCabe on the direction of senior Garda management.
There was controversy last year over the instructions Ms O’Sullivan gave her legal team at the commission of investigation, with leaked transcripts saying her lawyers were instructed to challenge Sgt McCabe’s “motivation and credibility”.
In a series of parliamentary questions, Mr Kelly has asked if there was consultation and contact between Ms O’Sullivan and the Department of Justice around the time of Sgt McCabe’s appearance at the O’Higgins Commission.
Mr Flanagan has said his department “would have had no role in determining the approach to be taken by the Garda Commissioner to the Commission in question”.
“Accordingly, there was no question of the department seeking to interfere in any way with, or to have any say in determining, that approach by the Garda Commissioner,” he added.
“It would of course have been entirely inappropriate for anyone to have sought to interfere in any way with the work of the Commission of Investigation.”
Mr Kelly has claimed Mr Flanagan has not denied that meetings or conversations took place between Ms O’Sullivan and senior figures in the Department of Justice around that time.
The Tipperary TD has now asked what the “purpose” of a telephone call between Ms O’Sullivan and the secretary general of the Department of Justice Noel Waters.
He also asked when former minister for justice Frances Fitzgerald “was informed about the phone call and/or the details of the phone call between former Commissioner O’Sullivan and the Secretary General of the Department of Justice”.
Mr Kelly’s questions are due to be answered in the Dáil in the coming days.