INDEMNITY DEAL:A CLAIM by former minister for education Michael Woods that the attorney general was "never out of the loop" in the negotiations between Church and State that led to the 2002 indemnity deal is contradicted by statements made by Dr Woods himself, Labour justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte has said.
He said the claim was also contradicted by the then attorney general, Michael McDowell, and the comptroller and auditor general, John Purcell, in a report to the Public Accounts Committee.
“Dr Woods reacted angrily when the Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, said that the 2002 deal needed to be revisited, among other reasons, because of the admission by Dr Woods that the attorney general had been excluded from discussions. The former minister for education rushed into the Dáil chamber, accused Deputy Gilmore of telling ‘a lie’ and claimed that the attorney general ‘was never out of the loop’.
“The reality is that Dr Woods’s statement is directly contradicted by his own words in an interview given to the Sunday Independent and published on October 12th, 2003,” said Mr Rabbitte.
He said in the article, Dr Woods defended the exclusion of then attorney general Michael McDowell and his officials from two meetings, saying: “The legal people simply couldn’t have attended – it was a no-go area for them – they had fallen out with the religious.”
Mr Rabbitte added that the manner in which the negotiations were conducted, the exclusion of the attorney general at key points, the rejection of advice from the Department of Finance that liability should be shared equally between the State and the orders, and the signing of the agreement by Dr Woods on his final day in office suggested this was a “sweetheart” deal.
Mr McDowell was not available for comment yesterday.
