MOTIVATION:GREEN PARTY TD Trevor Sargent has robustly defended the motivation behind his intervention with a garda which led to his resignation as Minister of State yesterday.
Speaking outside Leinster House last night, Mr Sargent said while he now realised he had “over-stepped the line”, he had only wanted to help an individual and had been “unable to walk away” from a constituent who had contacted him.
Mr Sargent said he did not have a long acquaintance with Dominic McGowan and did not know if Mr McGowan had contacted other TDs in his Dublin North constituency. Mr Sargent said Mr McGowan had come to him feeling vulnerable and afraid for his own safety and he had tried to help in a low-key fashion.
“I think we should not be sending out a message to people that if you are afraid of intimidation you should therefore ignore law-breaking. That’s the wrong message to send to people,” he said. “That was the only motivation I had, was to be of support to a constituent in their time of need.”
His move to contact “the garda in question” was an error of judgment, “born out of concern for an individual who had been a victim of an assault and who was trying simply to be a good citizen”. He now regretted what he had done.
However, he said he did not want to see people refraining from being good citizens for fear of intimidation. He did not want to jump to conclusions about why the story had come into the public domain now.
Asked if he was concerned that he might have to face the law as a result of what happened, Mr Sargent said he would answer any questions “from wherever they come”. Mr Sargent, flanked by Green TDs and Senators, said people all around the country could relate to the kind of situation he had encountered in his Dublin North constituency.
He said he apologised to Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Mr Gormley and Green Party colleagues. Resignation was the only course of action open to him, he said.
Green Party leader John Gormley said the party was “shell-shocked” by the events that had led to Mr Sargent’s resignation. It had been a difficult, emotional day, he said.
Mr Gormley insisted he did not want to speculate on how the information that prompted Mr Sargent’s resignation as minister had come into the public domain.
Asked if he rejected the accusation put forward by Opposition spokespeople that Fianna Fáil had leaked the information, Mr Gormley said the Opposition might want to use the situation to undermine the Government.
“I don’t have all of the facts in my possession as of yet, so I’m not going to jump to any conclusion,” he said.
Mr Gormley said it was far too premature to start speculating. “We need to get more facts into the domain.” The party was not in a position to make a judgment.
“It isn’t always best to make comments when you’re in such an emotional state, and that’s why we want to refrain from speculation at this stage. We’re pretty shell-shocked at the moment. Under those circumstances, I don’t want to give any hostages to fortune.”
Mr Gormley said he wanted to focus on paying tribute to his friend Mr Sargent, adding that the former minister of state had resigned in the most honourable and decent way yesterday.
“He is a credit to the Green Party, a credit to politics and he gives politics a good name,” Mr Gormley said.
