This post is brought to you by the number 3 (and the letter C)

In the last week or so, the news from France reminded us just how bad we are in Ireland  when it comes to criminal pursuit of criminal behaviour by politicians. Over the lasten we have seen three politicians dealing with different stages of the French criminal process:

• Former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua has been sentenced to a year in jail following conviction for his role in illegal arms sales to Angola;
• Former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is awaiting a verdict in his triafor abusing the criminal process in 2004 in an attempt to smear President Sarkozy; and
• Former President Jacques Chirac has been sent for trial on charges concerning creating false jobs while he was Mayor of Paris.

This reminded me about our political convict, Frank Dunlop, whose six month marker in jail comes up later this month. Dunlop, you will recall, was convicted (on his guilty plea) for being the middle man in a set of 16 corrupt deals involving councillors. Since then, I haven’t heard a word about those misdeeds, and I think that silence is Not A Good Thing. There a re a few points that lead me to think this.

First, it’s worth repeating: Dunlop was a middleman. And his crime was not that he inserted himself illegally between two other parties  going about their lawful business, but that he brought the three parties — himself and, on the one hand, councillors and, on the other hand, developers, together to conduct illegal business (sixteen times). So, if Dunlop, committed a crime, then at least two others also committed crimes. I also assume that at least some of the other parties are alive. I find it hard to imagine that with all of the evidence which  has been brought out at the tribunals, the only cases pursued against Dunlop happened to be those in which all of the other parties had since died. (Although, now that I mention that, maybe it is not so far fetched to think that the powers that be in the wonderful State of our would spare the blushes of the living by selecting cases not involving them for the token ritual lamb.)

Second, as far as I know, nobody else has yet appeared in court for their role in any of the sixteen cases for which Dunlop pleaded guilty.

Third, I may have I missed it, but I haven’t seen any news report that the Gardaí have interviewed anybody else in relation to these crimes. It may be that nobody has been interviewed or it may be that they have been but word hasn’t leaked out. Either option is unsatifactory, the first for the obvious reason that it means nothing has been done, the second because the Gardaí quite regularly let the media know that “a man is helping them with their inquiries” and I don’t see why the Dunlop cases should be any different.

You won’t be surprised to learn that I see a problem. The question, though, is what might be done about it. Here are some suggestions.

First, a backbench TD might put down a parliamentary question:

To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform concerning the corruption charges to which Mr Dunlop pleaded guilty and was subsequently sentenced in May 2009, the number of people, other than Frank Dunlop, who have been interviewed by the Gardaí or on whom files have been submitted by the Gardaí to the DPP, and in the case of files submitted to the DPP, the latest situation with those files.

Heck, if any of you who are reading this is a TD, please do feel free to copy that PQ and submit it.

Then, if that proves unsatisfactory — I think the turn-around time for a PQ is about a week — Plan B might be for Eamonn Gilmore to emulate a former Labour Leader and take himself down to a Garda Station and report a crime, with the details that he or a party reaserch officer can put together from the proceedings of the Tribunal or the publicly available records from the Dunlop charges. It strikes me that provided all of the other criminals in the cases have not left the State or died, the Garda task is straightforward enough: Dunlop has pleaded guilty, has the key evidence, is at a known location, and did not contest his own charges. Getting the evidence will be easy.

Finally, I have a Plan C that an opposition leader or justice spokesperson might be able to invoke if Plan B produces no progress for unsatisfactory reasons. We now have an independent Garda Ombudsman and a Garda Inspectorate. If the Gardaí were to be slow or inadequate in their investigation following the reporting of a crime, then I could see a role for either or both of those bodies. In fact, I suspect the Inspectorate could begin work even now: how adequate are the Gardaí systems for following up evidence of corruptio by politicians?