The Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) is reconsidering its position in relation to the leaking of a confidential document by Leo Varadkar in 2019.
In a letter to People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy last week the ethics body has said it has commenced a reconsideration of the matter and will inform him of the outcome.
Deputy Murphy complained about the leak to Sipo in 2020 but the body decided not to conduct a preliminary inquiry. That decision was then challenged in the High Court by Mr Murphy, with the court ruling in June that the decision was “inadequately reasoned”.
It now appears that Sipo can return with the same decision not to conduct a preliminary inquiry, but give more adequate reasoning for its decision, or come to an alternative decision and conduct a preliminary inquiry. It is not clear if such a full investigation could be concluded before the general election. Mr Varadkar has announced he is leaving politics at the end of this Dáil.
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“I think they should hold an investigation and I think this should happen before a general election,” said Mr Murphy. “I think the people have the right to know if he did something wrong, and if Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and the Greens were correct in backing him.”
A spokesman for Sipo said he had no comment to make. It was not possible to contact Mr Varadkar.
The leak, of a proposed new contract with GPs by the then Taoiseach, led to a no-confidence vote which Mr Varadkar survived. It also led to a Garda investigation, after which the Director of Public Prosecutions decided no charges should be brought. The Garda investigation put the Sipo consideration of the matter on temporary hold.
At the time of the High Court decision Mr Varadkar said it was a matter for Sipo to decide whether it would give more detailed reasons or reassess the complaint from scratch.
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