Senior civil servant 'should appear before Oireachtas Justice Committee'
Pressure is increasing on a senior official at the Department of Justice to appear before the Oireachtas Justice Committee.
Brian Purcell, Secretary General at the department, has come under scrutiny over the length of time it took to pass on to Justice Minister Alan Shatter a letter from the former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan expressing concern over the practice of recording phone calls at Garda stations.
Today Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte called for Mr Purcell - the former director general of the Irish Prison Service, who was also revealed as havng visited Mr Callinan at his home on the evening prior to his resignation - to appear before the committee to answer questions on the ongoing 'Gardagate' revelations.
His comments were echoed by Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald, herself a member of the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
"I think the appropriate place for him (Mr Purcell) to go would obviously be the Justice Committee on these matters.
"We hear from Mr Purcell from time to time on these issues before our own committee, but obviously it's on matters of financial and governance oversight rather than something like this.
"But he needs to be heard somewhere and I imagine that this would be the Justice Committee."
Elsewhere, reports today claim the setting up of the Commission of Inquiry into the recordings was prompted by fears that they could be destroyed.
Minister Rabbitte said the full facts of that issue should be allowed to come out through the inquiry,
