LAST UPDATE | 4 Oct 2021

TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said he has full confidence in the Attorney General Paul Gallagher.

It was reported last week Attorney General acted for former directors of Independent News & Media in the company’s proceedings with High Court-appointed inspectors whilst he was also the government’s legal advisor. 

Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall TD told the Dail that it was a “stunning” conflict of interest but Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that the AG had been “finishing out a number of cases” 

Varadkar said that the coalition’s three party leaders and the Cabinet were aware of that decision but said that they had not been informed of individual cases the Attorney General was involved in.

Speaking at the launch of the National Development Plan in Cork this afternoon, the Taoiseach said the AG had asked government if he could finish three cases when he joined the government.

The Taoiseach outlined that one case was in relation to the recapitalisation of Irish Permanent, the other was a commercial case which finished up last February, and the third was in relation to the INM case. The INM case took up two Saturdays, with the work concluding last Saturday week. 

The INM case was due to finish up a lot sooner, said the Taoiseach, but was delayed due to the pandemic.

The Taoiseach said there couldn’t have been any conflict of interest.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said that Gallagher’s private work would have been completed sooner had the courts been fully open in the past 18 months.

The Attorney General did inform the government party leaders prior to his appointment that he had a number of existing litigation commitments to complete. And normally you would expect those to be completed in a short period of time. But, as you know, the Court Service was impacted significantly by Covid-19 over the last period, and there were delays but all of those responsibilities have now been fully discharged, as I understand it.

McGrath said that it should be made clear what the party leaders knew about the clients Gallagher was acting for. 

“I’m sure there won’t be any difficulty in providing that information, there isn’t anything to hide here. The government believes in being as open and transparent in all of these issues as we possibly can be and the Office of the Attorney General really is vital to the work of government on a day to day basis and I have no doubt that any outstanding questions can and will be answered,” he said. 

Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny has called for the government to provide “a full and complete account” of Gallagher’s private cases while he’s been AG.