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IN THE WEEK since his election as Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar’s agenda, in the public eye at least, has been dominated by one issue: the appointment of Máire Whelan to the Court of Appeal.
The affair has caused deep criticism of the government, led to a two-hour Dáil debate last night and highlighted the cracks that exist in the confidence and supply agreement between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
But, how did we get here?
9 March, 2011
Máire Whelan was appointed Attorney General by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
The barrister from Kinvara, Galway, became the first woman to take up the role. She had previously served as head of the Free Legal Aid Centre.
She served in the role until June 2017.
13 June, 2017
A short government statement announced that Whelan would leave her role ahead of Leo Varadkar’s cabinet reshuffle.
She is to be appointed to the Court of Appeal, replacing Mr. Justice Garrett Sheehan, who retired in March. It was confirmed to Gavan Reilly of Today FM that she had not applied for the position.
The same day Minister Shane Ross, who had long been against political appointments of judges, announced a plan to reopen Stepaside Garda Station in his constituency had been approved.
The Social Democrats’ Roisín Shortall immediately labelled the appointment “nakedly political”.
14 June
Criticism of the deal ramped up, with Ross being challenged on it in the Dáil. Ross said that there was no quid pro quo on the issue.
I learned first about Máire Whelan’s proposed appointment yesterday morning. When I learned about it, there was no conversation about Stepaside Garda station. There has been no link of any sort between the two.
Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty said Whelan was “an eminently qualified judge”.
16 June
Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan said there “will be consequences” over the deal. Party colleague Niall Collins had earlier called on Whelan to not accept her appointment.
Ross later said the Cabinet would “look at this again” and “see if there’s anything we can do”.
It was also revealed that instead of excusing herself from the room, Whelan was present during the Cabinet meeting when her appointment was raised by the then-Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald.
19 June
Criticism continued over the weekend, but Whelan was appointed a Court of Appeal judge on Monday.
20 June
The Social Democrats asked for more answers about the appointment.
They asked whether the appointment now meant that Whelan would be excluded from participating in any Tribunal of Inquiry or Commission of Investigations – specifically the Charleton Inquiry.
Leo Varadkar, speaking in the Dáil, said that in the past Fianna Fáil had appointed people such as Supreme Court judge Frank Clarke and former Supreme Court judge Adrian Hardiman.
Martin replied: “Máire Whelan is no Frank Clarke. Máire Whelan is no Adrian Hardiman.”
The Taoiseach responded that he was concerned about aspersions that were being made against Whelan and her capabilities.
He said he wanted Martin to be “mindful of the separation of powers” and that he wanted to give him the opportunity to withdraw his comments.
21 June
A two-hour debate was held in the Dáil to discuss the appointment last night.
It became extremely heated.
New Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan said a new bill was part of the government’s aim of “entirely reforming the judicial appointment system”.
Jim O’Callaghan dismissed the claim that Cabinet confidentiality prevented the answering of essential questions on the matter.
This is a sorry saga, but the fault lies with government.
Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, meanwhile, said that Micheál Martin – who wasn’t present for the debate – had serious questions to answer based on a telephone call he had with the Taoiseach on the matter last Sunday.
She questioned whether Martin attempted to use his influence on the government to prevent Whelan being appointed.
Labour leader Brendan Howlin took aim at the Independent Alliance who, he claimed, “clapped through an appointment that they now oppose”.
Clare Daly said the appointment was legal, but “political”.
Mattie McGrath said “new politics, my foot”.
Sinn Féin’s Jonathan O’Brien got into a war of words with Minister Flanagan, after asking how many others applied for the role.
Today, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was asked if the situation had affected Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil’s confidence and supply arrangement. “Obviously the week that has gone by I don’t think has been helpful for either party,” he said. “But we have a written agreement.”
He pointed out that the agreement does not require appointments – either judicial or public – to be run by Fianna Fáil, so he doesn’t believe there has been a breach of the agreement.
In addition, Varadkar said he doesn’t believe there is any reason the agreement should fall, but over the next couple of weeks they will need to work as parties and have “confidence moves”.
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ESB made an operating profit of €445 million last year.
They can fix their own problems please.
@Leo Massey: Correct and this ripoff given the green light as usual by our wonderful government…..a country of 5 million making profits of half a billion…..unreal.
@Leo Massey: They’re state owned. The profits go to the government. The money still comes from the same place in the end.
@Leo Massey: you are talking about ESB Group and final profit after exceptional item, interest and tax was €60m
@Peter Hughes: Was at one point we had one of the cheapest electric in Europe then was increased to allow other companies to come into the market. Well done FF
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: and your proof for this claim?
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: Yes it was the cheapest electricity in the EU at one point. But “competition” was introduced. This resulted in the ESB as it was then being obliged to raise prices so that private competitors could undercut them due to the small scale of the Irish market. It also reduced the cost effectiveness of the then ESB due to reduced scale. It has delivered precious little to the Irish public except the illusion of price competition in a tiny market with a widely dispersed population. Thank goodness they decided not to privatise the national grid. Competition is usually a good thing but, in my view, electricity generation in a tiny market like Ireland is as close to a natural monopoly as it gets. So regulate the public monopoly and don’t introduce faux competition.
@John R: The market was opened to competition in 2009. The ESB were not allowed to lower prices until it had lost a significant amount of customers to other suppliers. This happened in 2011 and the ESB were allowed set their own prices. They also had to change their name to Electric Ireland at the time. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/cheaper-bills-are-on-way-as-esb-sets-own-prices-26710661.html
People saying we had the cheapest rates don’t seem to be able to produce evidence. It was a state owned company that generated revenue for the government. I’m sure they were nice however and rat it at a huge loss.
Map and share data on any kind of pollution anywhere @ OpenLitterMap.com – the data is accessible to everyone as open data so citizens can make sure local authorities are doing their job.
The ESB doesn’t have the money to change these oil filled cables which have given great service for a great many years. Newer PVC type insulation cables have no maintenance whatsoever and if the Regulator gives money to the ESB to change out these old cables, the ESB would do it no problem.
@Wild Goose: Sorry but they hit this for years. They made 445 million last year!!!!
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: is that ESB networks that made that money or Electric Ireland which is a different company.
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: Also you do realise that since its state owned the profits are handed to the government. it doesn’t really matter if its the ESB or the government who pays for it
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: ESB Group made that figure. Also after exceptional items, interest and tax it was €60m for the Group.
@Darren Byrne: But will anyone be sacked for hiding this for years????
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: here come the uneducated, shouting ill thought out baseless statements.
@Vincent #SaveDaredevil: They didn’t hide it. They reported it to the body they were obliged to report it to.
FYI you can thank the Labour party for enacting the protected disclosures act 2014 which allowed Mr. McLoughlin his civil protections.
This is disgusting. A semi-state knowingly polluting waterways but deciding that it’s not in the public’s interest to disclose such information. Wouldn’t it be nice to have government organisations that lead by example. If the government don’t care, why should anyone else? A case of “do as we say, not as we do”?
@Shakka1244: The ESB has being reporting on this to the regulator for years. The reason this is in the news is that RTE picked up on it and the ESB are now taking to the EPA. whom they had not informed. The question is whose job was it to report this problem to the EPA? The ESB? The regulator? Or both of them? Or perhaps there is no statutory requirement to report it to the EPA at all which would seem most peculiar.
I fail to see the controversy in this. They used the common practice of the time when installing these cables, with non toxic biodegradable oils, newer maintenance free options are becoming available and these will be changed out over the coming years. There is no secrecy, only non awareness by the non technical public. I’d be surprised if the EPA if had not always considered and counted this as known source of soil contamination. That is a question that needs answering.
The continuous replacement at such a high level is surprising though, that might negate any biodegradability benefit. Have they worked out how much per year per cubic meter of effected soil? Or how low that needs to be effectively broken down? Or how flooding plays into it all?
Expect whopping great increases in electricity bills, have to pay for the new cables.
The oil filled cables are topped up from supply tanks at sub-stations.
Oil leakage was no secret but the ESB were hardly going to go boasting about it.
This looks like a flash in the pan sensation reporting.
BTW 1,000 m3 over 20 years over the whole country.
Does that count for much? I’d say there is more disposed into drains and back gardens every week.
They claim most was mineral oil, but these are old cables from when PCB was commonly used for electrical insulation and cooling:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polychlorinated_biphenyl
https://www.epa.ie/pubs/forms/surveys/PCB%20Information%20Leaflet.pdf
Ha like the missing 100,000 litres of JetA1 from #IrishAirCorps fuel farm that EPA, kept quiet about.
@Chemical Brothers: That be 3 Tanker loads very hard to hide 3 tankers.
Perhaps they should investigate the utter waste of money at ESB. While charging customers increases they regularly spend outrageous amounts sending staff away, nights out and bonuses.
Were we Irish born incompetent, or just blind to it?
@Denis McClean:
Olive oil has many uses but it’s is a fairly new phenomena here in cooking.
The extra virgin variety is great for a massage, it has been reported.
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