When the suggestion was put to Labour senator Susan O’Keeffe (Late Debate) that Shatter and the Government may have been involved in a cover-up, she responded:
If you’re trying to cover up you don’t generally try to organise and appoint senior counsel to….
Oh dear, O’Keeffe seems to have forgotten that a cover-up was the principal aim of setting up the Beef Tribunal by the criminal Haughey.
And, in fact, that cover-up worked very well as O’Keeffe, as a journalist, apart from some minor players, was the only person brought before the courts as a result of its findings.
In those days she was on the other side of the fence, the side that spoke with clarity and honesty, the side that challenged the state when it was clearly involved in shady activities, the side that did not indulge in political waffle.
If the criminal Haughey was around today he would be proud of her skills of political waffle.
Very good as I never new her history.