THE retention of the Minister for Justice and the Attorney General in office would mean the Dail abandoning all pretence of parliamentary accountability, the Fianna Fail spokesman on justice claimed. "Is it too much to ask this Government to enforce openness, transparency and accountability?" asked Mr John O'Donoghue.
He said Mrs Nora Owen might choose to ignore the requirements of the Ministers and Secretaries Act. She might decline to apply the law to herself and she might choose to continue to profess that it was politically acceptable for a minister not to know what was going on in her private office.
But no official made her come to the House and conceal the existence of the letter from Judge Dominic Lynch of early October, Mr O'Donoghue said.
"She made that decision herself. She embarked on the route of half-truth and was found out. If she is not prepared to take responsibility for administrative omissions in her Department, will she at least take responsibility for her own omissions in this House? It is over, Minister, you have to go. Decency demands that you do."
However, the Minister should not go alone, because others were equally to blame, Mr O'Donoghue said. The Constitution gave to, Mr Dermot Gleeson two separate legal functions: he was both the legal adviser to the Government and the guardian of the public interest.
Mr Gleeson had, in his capacity as guardian of the public interest, a duty to act when he became aware there was an impression within the judiciary that Mr Justice Lynch was still a member of the Special Criminal Court.
"He did not discharge that duty when he decided to communicate with the Minister for Justice in a manner more suited to estranged pen pals than ordinary human beings. The Attorney General had a further duty to act when he received no reply."
Mr O'Donoghue said Mrs Gleeson alone made the error. "His predecessor as Attorney General, Harry Whelehan, relinquished his position as President of the High Court over demands that he be held responsible for a delay in dealing with extradition papers which everyone agreed had not been brought to his attention. Harry Whelehan didn't know and didn't act. Dermot Gleeson knew and didn't act. Which of them is the more culpable?"
The "fine upstanding moralists" in the Labour Party went looking for Mr Whelehan's head, he said. They had said it was not, anything personal, but the Attorney General had to be answerable for what happened in his office, even if he did not know what had happened. On this occasion, the Attorney General not alone knew, what was done in his office - he personally did it.
The debate, Mr O'Donoghue said, was about incompetence and its consequences, about failure and its consequences about political accountability.