Taoiseach Simon Harris has appealed for Government coalition parties “not to rewrite history” with attacks on each other during the election campaign.
He was speaking after Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan said the Department of Justice needs “new political control and direction” after 14 years with a Fine Gael minister.
Mr O’Callaghan said there was a “question mark” over whether Fine Gael was the party of law and order as he used the party’s election slogan to criticise its track record on justice.
The first week of the election campaign has seen the two largest coalition parties publicly rowing with each other, with Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin saying he was surprised by the tone of the Fine Gael attacks.
On Friday morning, Fine Gael Justice Minister Helen McEntee hit back when asked about Mr O’Callaghan’s suggestion that she had adopted a series of proposals on law and order and immigration that he had put forward.
“I think there’s probably women all over the country who will understand what it’s like when men try to claim credit for their work,” she told reporters in Dublin on Friday.
Speaking at the nearby launch of Fianna Fáil’s proposals to clamp down on crime, Mr O’Callaghan said that the Justice Department needed “a new energy” – which has been a Fine Gael campaign slogan.
“I think it would have been different and sometimes political emphasis or political direction have a real impact in terms of a government department,” he said.
“Look at housing, and look what Eoghan Murphy (former Fine Gael housing minister) said when he was in the department, you can have a well-intentioned minister, but unless you have the political emphasis and the political support behind you to make changes, it won’t happen.
“I believe, had we had the full ministry in the Department of Justice, I believe we would have seen greater progress in the area of justice.
“I think that’s part of the reason why Micheal (Martin) has indicated that if it comes to negotiations, if the people put us in the position where we can go into government, that’s one of the portfolios we’d be interested in pursuing.”
Asked whether Ms McEntee was an “ineffective” justice minister, Mr O’Callaghan said he was not going to personalise the criticism.
He said: “I’m not going to personalise it at all to Minister McEntee or to any Fine Gael minister, but let’s recognise the statistics.
“The Department of Justice has been under the control of Fine Gael for the past nearly 14 years, and although there’s been progress in very many other areas in the past four years, I think the questions that are arising in the Department of Justice over the past 14 years are growing in many respects.
“So I’m not going to personalise it to Minister McEntee, but I do think there is a benefit to help the Department of Justice under new political control and direction, as it really needs a new energy within that department.”
Speaking in Co Clare, Mr Harris said he did not want to get into a “tit-for-tat” with his coalition partners and insisted the government parties had worked well together.
The Taoiseach said: “We have worked well together for four-and-a-half years, we have delivered five budgets.
“We haven’t gotten everything right, we’ve gotten many things right, there are other areas we need to do better.
“We can’t have a situation now where people who were in the government, sitting around the cabinet table, who had effectively a veto on any decision, are now saying that department, that wasn’t under our control.
“That’s not how collective cabinet responsibility works.”
Mr Harris added: “There was a Fianna Fáil taoiseach for two-and-a-half years of the lifetime of this Government.
“There was a Fianna Fáil taoiseach or tánaiste for all of the lifetime of this Government and the reverse is also true in relation to Fine Gael.
“My experience of the four-and-a-half years in government, we shouldn’t rewrite history, was constructive engagement among three distinct parties.
“Helen was willing to serve as a minister. She turned up, put her shoulder to the wheel.
“Helen McEntee doesn’t need to be taking anyone’s ideas.”
