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Taoiseach Micheál Martin has defended the Attorney General Paul Gallagher and said he has full confidence in him amid controversy over the fact that Mr Gallagher, a senior counsel, continued to carry out some private legal work after assuming the role of senior legal adviser to the Government.
Mr Gallagher is serving as Attorney General for his second time, having started when the coalition Government was being formed in June, 2020. He previously served between 2007 and 2011.
“I do of course have full confidence in the Attorney General. I asked the Attorney General to serve because of his ability, because of his work ethic, and because of his integrity and he did indicate that he wanted to finish out three professional obligations that he had in respect of three cases.”
Mr Martin said one of the three cases related to the recapitalization of Irish Permanent which dated back to 2011. He said Mr Gallagher had one hearing remaining when he was appointed Attorney General in June 2020 and that was concluded in November 2020.
Mr Gallagher was also involved in a second, commercial case, which concluded in February 2021. The third and final case was for private clients relating to a High Court inquiry into Independent News and Media.
“The third case was the cross-examination of one witness in the High Court inspection process in relation to former directors of Independent News and Media and that took up two Saturdays and that finished last Saturday week,” said Mr Martin.
Speaking in Cork at the launch of the National Development Plan, Mr Martin said that Mr Gallagher had expected all three cases to conclude much more quickly when he took up the position of Attorney General but the pandemic had led to delays in all three.
Both Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats criticised Coalition leaders for allowing Mr Gallagher to continue representing former INM directors in their dealings with a High Court inspection sought by the Director of Corporate Enforcement.
But Mr Martin rejected any allegation that there was any conflict of interest between Mr Gallagher’s seeing out his private work in respect of the three cases that he was involved in and his work as Attorney General advising the Government on legal matters.
Mr Martin said “there couldn’t have been any conflict of interest and there wasn’t any in any of those three cases” as he explained that there was a convention in place regarding how senior counsel handle their private legal work when they are appointed to the position of Attorney General.
“The convention is in the context of any Attorney General, who may have been involved in a case prior to becoming the Attorney General, the Attorney General alerts the Cabinet and doesn’t actually give advice on a matter that might involve a party to a case he was involved with previous.”
Mr Martin said that the Director General of the Office of the Attorney General then gives advice in respect of the case that the Attorney General had an involvement so there cannot be any conflict of interest between the Attorney General in his role as Government advisor and previous private work.
Mr Martin said: “He is a man of exceptional ability, I would have experience of previously working with him in Government during very difficult times, his work ethic is second to none, his strong public interest approach in terms of how he conducts his work and he is a man of the highest integrity.”
He said that, when he approached Mr Gallagher during Government formation talks in 2020 to again serve as Attorney General, he did so because he thought he would make an important contribution which he believed was evident from the amount of legislation the Government had passed to date.
“I felt he would add value to our work and to be frank that can be seen in his application to some significant legislative pieces which have come through in a short space of time due to his application and due to his capacity to work with ministers in different Government departments.”