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MINISTER FOR FINANCE MICHAEL Noonan said that he couldn’t answer the question as to why the Minister for Justice was not aware of the details of the recordings at garda stations until yesterday.
It emerged today that the former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan is reported to have sent a letter to the Secretary General of the department asking that the Minister of Justice be made aware of the details of the recordings.
The letter is dated 1o March 2014 and was couriered over to the department.
Speaking on RTÉ’S Prime Time this evening, Noonan said that the he couldn’t answer the question as to why the department did not bring the letter to the ministers attention, or why Shatter did not know about it until yesterday.
He said he could only “assume” that officials at the Department of Justice did not think they were under any time pressure to inform the minister.
Recording calls
Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil today that the government has received information of tape recordings in “many garda stations” dating back to the 1980s.
He said he was made aware of the information at 6pm on Sunday by the Attorney General. However, Shatter said that he was not told about the letter until yesterday.
The system of recording calls has been in place “for many years” up until November of last year at “a large number of Garda stations “where incoming and outgoing calls were taped and recorded.
St Patrick’s Day in Mexico
Noonan said that Minister Shatter was away for St Patrick’s Day for some time and was back in the office on Monday.
He said:
Maybe they didn’t think it was important at the time.
When asked by Miriam O’Callihan why someone would not raise the issue with Minister Shatter before yesterday and why they didn’t simply call Minister Shatter while he was away representing Ireland in St Patrick’s celebrations, Noonan said the minister was in Mexico, adding that perhaps the officials thought they were not under any time pressure to inform the minister.
He added, “I assume senior officials said they would evaluate it as best we can and when the minister comes back we’ll appraise him on it,” said Noonan.
He added as the minister was out of the office maybe the senior officials had reasons for doing it “face to face”.
Not satisfactory
Noonan said that he was in no way “suggesting this is satisfactory”.
He said it was the content of one recording and one matter of litigation that increased the “magnitude” of the issue and “moved the relevance of the issue up by hundreds of percent”.
Noonan said that the government were not “happy” with the situation, stating:
“We’re not happy, the Taoiseach is not happy, that’s why there is a commission of investigation”.
When asked if he supported Minister Shatter he said he believed the minister to be a “very good” minister” adding that people opposed to him had “vested interests” in him resigning.
He said only reason for a minister to resign would be where there was an issue malpractice. He said there was no suggestion Shatter “did anything improper so he shouldn’t stand down,” he said.
Noonan would not speculate on the reasons behind the former commissioners resignation, stating the commissioner said he stood down for family reasons.
“He served county very well very,” said Noonan adding that he fought a good fight against criminal activity of the IRA and said he didn’t want to “dump on the commissioner”.
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I watched Noonan on Prime Time he embarrassed himself and the principles of democratic accountability. Shatter should resign tonight.
Noonan the man who sold our country to the Germans to protect his own investments should retire now before he can do any more damage to our country.
Oh for a statesman in this little Republic of the elites ,,
He knows nothing he’s from Barcelona.
100% LIAR NOONAN. PURE BULLSH1T
This government are even more pathetic than the last one , God help this country with the calibre of politicians we keep on electing to office!
After paying dearly for the bailout of private banks, developers and government screw ups, being additionally taxed to fund bonuses of the new water company’s staff, paying accountancy firms to get us into the mess and advise us on getting out, seeing nobody prosecuted, no resignations, only golden parachutes and early retirement……..simply “move on – nothing to see here”……The Uber Irish clique of politicians (all parties), their benefactors, their mandarins at the top of the civil service and their corrupt protectors are about to push the Irish public too far.
Is this the beginning of the end for this government???
I hope so on so many levels
With a bit of luck
Guys quit digging while you can still see the grass.
If there is a modicum of decency left in this Govt they should pull the plug and face the electorate.
We need a new consensus.
sorry Jarlath they have gone past the grass into the ( sh-t ) muck .
Leaving the party politics and the usual whinging aside it is increasingly clear to me that there is a problem in the Department of Justice. Needs a big shake up and a few outsiders to go in and root out the complacent incompetents and arrogant insufferables.
Fr molloy and Veronica Guerin rip….these deaths should now be investigated….’walking on thin ice’ that is what veronica guerin was told when she started investigating the Fr. Molloy case…
Noonan wouldn’t cover up a murder , would he ?
Don’t buy a horse with his friends
Noonan is a total fraud, if he repeated the line ”he resigned on family grounds”one more time I would have thrown my telly out the window. Who the hell does he think believes that much. He may walk with shatter.
Same fella was in chantilly virginia at a private bilderberg meeting lining up what could be robbed from the irish people…we also paid for the trip…
Pathetic watching noonan tonight.wouldt even take part in discussion with opposition tds on prog..kennys days numbered as fg leader when u get elder ex leader to defend the indefensible of shatter.reckon we will have more revelations by wkend..big question is how did paul reynolds get hold of letter cud it b callinans pigeon coming to roost
no Martin the pigeons delivered to Paul R.
Where was our leader tonight? Labour are silent on this huge issue too. Noonans performance was utterly unconvincing but at least he had the guts to appear on the programme. He’s still an utter wan*er tho! Shatter is doomed. Hopefully this govt will follow suit.
No guts, refused to appear with opposition politicians so he would get an easy ride
Do the government think we are stupid ???? Well we are not ……
If Shatter doesn’t resign, then this Govt has no credibility! Keep your man, lose my vote!!!
Michael “the dog ate my homework” Noonan.
Noonans interview on prime time was a joke. I didn’t believe a word of what he said. Is this the Transparency in Irish politics that Kenny promised?
Shatter has to go, and here’s hoping he brings down the government with him.
And Labour says…
Labour will say…nothing! Like they have said nothing since getting into government…if they had any sense they would stand up to FG on this…make a stand, potentially break the coalition and maybe save some modicum of respect from the electorate get their day!
*before they get their day!
Actually breaking from govt might be the only thing that stops them being annihilated at this stage
The AG comes from Labour and she knew in November. I can’t believe that she didn’t mention this before Sunday, if not at Cabinet, then at least to one of the Labour ministers. If she didn’t think it important enough to mention to them then she is incompetent.
Bunch of f**kwits wouldn’t know the truth if it jumped up & bit them on the arse! :-)
I’m shocked but not by these latest revelations. I’m shocked at what it will take for the irish people to snap. We have to be the most laid back population on the planet. Finally, will we do something about it or whine on social media. The latter I’d say.
Noonan…. The new man.. Well…. I know nothing.
Keep moving on lads nothing to see here it’s only a tsunami
I was just following orders….. Actually no, I mean family reasons!
Exposes the disconnect between elected reps and the rulers of the country. Civil servants decide what a minister should see, or not. Why bother with elections? Waste of money
Noonan is like a ping pong ball with an attitude.
Should the government?
Lying sc-m-gs the lot of them rotten to the core
So it only 1 recording and 1 court case that has caused this furore??? Nothing to do with fact that all 2400 recordings and tapes are illegal???? And as Attorney General sits at government cabinet table. Did he not tell government ministers, especially minister of justice, back in November when Callinan informed him of this practice??? Not even this FG/Lab crowd are this incompedant…. Major smoke screen. What’s is really going on?????
The AG is a woman.
What moron has ever called a Garda station and not expected it to be recorded?
Garda Stations used to be a popular recipient of Sinn Fein/IRA bomb warnings on civilians for example.
Had they not been recording the threats there would have been an equal media panic that nobody was recording the calls.
Why all the fuss?
A suspect calls their solicitor from the Garda station after their arrest. Their conversation is privileged. If any of these conversations were recorded, the convictions may be deemed to be unsafe.
You are a joke, John
Don’t ever underestimate Noonans command of the language.
As Mr Noonan should you dont assume anything in politics or elsewhere either you know or you do not ,because the word assume broken down=ASS -U-ME and he is a bigger ASS to assume otherwise.
Going Loco… Down in Acapulco?
I am happy they choose a jaunt but pay for themselves. Should be at “work” and so they also continue payments as this is not included in immense holiday breaks.
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