AHERN COMMITMENT ON GARDA INQUIRY:MINISTER FOR Justice Dermot Ahern has said he will publish "as soon as possible" the report of the inquiry into the source of leaked letters written by former minister of state Trevor Sargent to a garda.
Mr Ahern also said claims he had been responsible for the leaks were an attempt to smear him and he was confident he would be vindicated by the investigation. The investigation has been ordered by Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy.
The Minister said the claims were “a nasty attempt at a smear against me and my party”.
The commissioner briefed Mr Ahern yesterday morning on the investigation and “he had a preliminary look at the documents and he’s initiated an investigation into the source of the leaks and he will present me with a report”.
The Minister added: “I intend to publish that as soon as possible when I get it. And I hope when it’s published those people who smeared me are man enough to go into the Dáil or indeed outside the Dáil and withdraw their smears.”
The investigation will, he said, be “an examination of the entire circumstances around the case and indeed the leaking of the documents”. He said the same report would contain the findings of the separate investigation into a complaint made against former minister for defence Willie O’Dea by a member of the Green Party.
Mr Ahern said that in 1996 “I was smeared” in the Dáil by “a leading member of Fine Gael” and he went to the then taoiseach John Bruton “and he made the leading member of Fine Gael – who is still a leading member – come into the Dáil and apologise and withdraw what he said”. Mr Ahern said he hopes “Enda Kenny does the same” in relation to the claims made against him on Tuesday by Fine Gael spokesman on justice Charlie Flanagan.
He said it was the age-old game of politics to “make an allegation and make him deny it”. He said “one or two of the Opposition persons were very close to defaming me and I have to bear that in mind”.
He added: “I understand Paul Williams had this story a week ago and he has already indicated that it didn’t come from a Fianna Fáil source.” The Minister added he would like the Evening Herald journalist who wrote the stories to say “it didn’t come from a political source”. Asked if he was confident he would be vindicated, the Minister said “absolutely”. He said the first he knew of the incident was when he heard it on the lunchtime news on Tuesday.
The claims by the Opposition were “clearly without a scintilla of proof”, and an attempt to “upset the Government and make the relationship bad between the Greens and Fianna Fáil and that won’t work”. He said the Coalition parties “have too much work to do and to be fair to the Greens every time there is a difficulty they have indicated they are in for the long haul and want to do the job they were elected to do and so do we”.
He said the claims were “clearly an attempt by the Opposition to drive a wedge between us and that won’t happen”.
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan described the claims by the Opposition against Mr Ahern as “underhand” and “snide”. She said “it is clearly important his good name is not bandied about”. She said what had happened had not destabilised the Government.