Rabbitte: Cabinet did not know about recordings

Thursday 27 March 2014 21.59

The Minister for Communicationshas said Cabinet ministers did not know about the emergence of information on recording phone callsin garda stations ahead of the contact between the Secretary General at the Department of Justice and the former garda commissioner on Monday.

It follows reports that the secretary general told former commissionerMartin Callinan,when he called to his home on Monday night, that there was disquiet at Cabinet level about the information given to the Taoiseach over the weekend by the Attorney General.

Speaking on RT's News At One, PatRabbitte rejected suggestions that there were differences of opinion around the Cabinet table before that contact.

Hesaid only Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Justice Alan Shatterwere aware at that stage about the information regarding the recordings.

He said the first he and the remaining Cabinet ministers knew about it was at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.

The ministersaid Tnaiste Eamon Gilmore first heard about it at a pre-Cabinet meeting that morning.

Asked about why it had taken so long for information about the recordings to get to the right people, Mr Rabbitte said information regarding a particular litigation file on the civil side had been the subject of discussions between people in the Attorney General's Office, people in the Department of Justice and An Garda Sochna.

However, he said there was no knowledge and clarity at that stage that the capturing of telephone exchanges was going on wider than in that particular case.

Mr Rabbitte said he would have expected that management in the force at a much lower level than the garda commissioner, including chief superintendents in the regions, must have known about the practice.

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Rabbitte: Cabinet did not know about recordings