O'Brien: FF has questions to answer for attacks on tribunal
Sinn Féin has called on the Government to ensure that the recommendations of the Mahon tribunal report are implemented promptly.
The party's justice spokesperson Jonathan O'Brien said it was not just the former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern who still had questions to answer.
He said the Fianna Fáil party itself also had some explaining to do.
"The report found that cabinet ministers at the time tried to undermine the independence of the tribunal and...also conspired to try to collapse the tribunal. These are questions for Micheál Martin as current leader of Fianna Fáil to answer." he said.
READ THE FINAL MAHON REPORT HERE
In a section of the tribunal's final report headlined “Integrity and Independence of the Tribunal”, Judge Alan Amhon said: “In 2007/2008 at a time when this Tribunal was inquiring into matters relating to Bertie Ahern... it came under sustained and virulent attack from a number of senior Government ministers who questioned the legality of its inquiries as well as the integrity of its members.
“It was entirely inappropriate for members of the Government to launch such unseemly and partisan attacks against a Tribunal of Inquiry... to inquire into serious concerns regarding corruption in public life.
“There appears little doubt that the objective of these extraordinary and unprecedented attacks on the Tribunal was to undermine the efficient conduct of the Tribunal’s inquiries, erode its independence and collapse its inquiry into that individual.
“They were as regrettable as they were ill-considered and unfounded.”
