Senior Coalition figures have expressed concern over claims made in the murder trial of Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch about Sinn Féin and its leader Mary Lou McDonald.
ánaiste Leo Varadkar told the Sunday Independent last night “there are clearly questions that will have to be asked and answered satisfactorily” once the trial at the Special Criminal Court ends.
His comments came after Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said yesterday that any perceived connections with criminality are not good for the political system and must be called out.
Interventions by senior politicians are rare during a trial before the non-jury court.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin declined to be drawn on the disclosures in court when asked about them during a visit to Paris last week, but the Fianna Fáil leader signalled he would be discussing the issues raised once the trial ends.
“I don’t want to in any way be seen to influence the deliberations of that trial process, so I’ll hold all comments in relation to that until the aftermath of the case,” he said.
It emerged at the trial last week that former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall — who gave McDonald a €1,000 cheque in 2011 when she successfully ran for the Dáil and made other donations to the party — was secretly recorded claiming the Sinn Féin leader used the Hutch family for money and votes.
Dowdall was also recorded criticising McDonald for not attending the funeral of Edward ‘Neddy’ Hutch, the murdered brother of Gerry.
Dowdall was heard telling The Monk the Sinn Féin leader stayed away from the funeral, “but yous were good enough, Gerard, to use for votes. Yous were good enough to use for money”.
Hutch is on trial for the murder of David Byrne, who was shot dead at the Regency Hotel in February 2016 in an attack that escalated the deadly Kinahan-Hutch feud that has resulted in the deaths of 18 people.
Dowdall admitted to facilitating the perpetrators of Byrne’s murder by booking a hotel room for them and has now turned state witness against Hutch.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said last night: “We must respect that a trial is still under way, but there are clearly questions that will have to be asked and answered satisfactorily once it’s over.”
Separately, in an interview today with this newspaper, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe — who shares the Dublin Central constituency with Mary Lou McDonald — said of last week’s court disclosures: “It does concern me, but there is a trial under way. I am not going to go any further.”
At the Green Party conference in Athlone yesterday, leader Mr Ryan was asked if he was concerned about what was heard in court.
The Environment and Transport Minister said his party does not engage in the “populist kind of politics of division and negative politics”.
However, he added: “We obviously call out any criminality, or if there are instances in public life where people are not living up to proper standards.
“Any sort of connection with such criminality must be called out — it’s not good for our political system for that to be seen, or for that to be understood to be true.
“But I think our job is not to double-down on some of the populist rhetoric — it is to work with everyone to make this transformation we need.
“We manage our own affairs, try to make sure we are up to the best standards, and we let the public decide what standards apply in other parties. They’re the judge in the end.”
In relation to the disclosures at the high-profile murder trial, a Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “There is absolutely no truth to any of the suggestions made about Sinn Féin or Mary Lou McDonald.”