Vivienne Clarke
Former Government minister Regina Doherty has called for action to be taken against another former minister, Shane Ross, for his new book which she says breaches Cabinet confidentiality.
“When the golden rule is broken it all falls apart,” she told RTÉ radio’s Today show.
Ms Doherty, who is now a Fine Gael Senator after losing her seat in the last general election, said Mr Ross had “moved with indecent haste” to write the book, which showed “he had no real interest in being a Minister.”
The book was “unedifying” and publishing it was “naked attention seeking,” she said.
Ms Doherty said she felt guilty commenting on it as it was giving Mr Ross and the book more publicity.
His decision to reveal details of Cabinet meetings in the book was ironic, she said, considering “he went bananas” after information about one of his Bills was leaked.
Are FG ministers @ReginaDo and @PaulKehoe saying the public should be kept in dark about cabinet matters? Dept of Justice was a fortress of secrecy re judges appointments under last government. #inbedwiththeblueshirts https://t.co/zoULU95sCt
— Shane Ross (@Ross_Shane1) October 27, 2020
On the same programme Mr Ross said he could understand the anger about the book, but this wasn’t the first time Cabinet meetings had been written about.
He said there was “Fine Gael precedence” as former taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald and others had also written about Cabinet meetings.
Mr Ross said he did not think he would be prosecuted for any of the revelations in his book. But he acknowledged there was a real problem with Cabinet confidentiality as “everything was leaked.”
He said his book told “in an orderly way what happened.”
“It's in the public interest to know what happens.
“You might as well have an RTÉ camera in the room the way information was being live tweeted to journalists.”
Ms Doherty said that it was sad that Mr Ross had “stooped this low.”
