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IN THE END, despite the criticism and the damning reports, there was little to suspect that Alan Shatter would resign as Minister for Justice this afternoon.
Less than an hour before his resignation was announced, he was in the Dáil taking questions in his role as Minister for Defence.
Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste had said that they fully supported him as he dealt with body blows: yesterday, within minutes of RTE reporting that the Data Protection Commissioner found that Shatter had broken the law, both Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore said he had their backing – even before the report was made public.
Within minutes of the news of his shock resignation, TDs and Senators were rushing through Leinster House to make it to the Dáil chamber to find out what had happened.
In the end, it was not the GSOC bugging, the Data Protection Commissioner report or the dispute with rank-and-file members of the gardaí that led to his resignation.
In his letter to Enda Kenny, Alan Shatter made it clear that it was the report by senior barrister Sean Guerin into the allegations made by garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe which led him to tender his resignation.
The Guerin report
Exactly 65 days ago, the Cabinet agreed that Guerin would investigate the claims that An Garda Síochána mishandled a series of cases involving abduction, assault and murder.
Maurice McCabe had given a dossier to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin containing the allegations, which had then been passed to the Taoiseach. After reading it, Enda Kenny said that documents contained “extremely serious allegations of garda misconduct”.
Seán Guerin, an experienced criminal lawyer, was given several weeks to carry out an independent investigation to see if there were grounds for the establishment of a Commission of Investigation.
There has been growing controversy about what Alan Shatter knew about the allegations, and when exactly he became aware of them. One report suggested that Shatter had been notified about the allegations two yeas ago.
The Guerin report, which was finalised this week, was given to Taoiseach Enda Kenny who gave Alan Shatter a copy of it this morning.
In his resignation letter, Alan Shatter said that he had not had time to read the entire report, which runs to more than 300 pages. However, he said that he had read in full Chapters 1, 19 and 20, as well as the accompanying letter from Seán Guerin.
In the report, which has not yet been made public, Guerin recommends that the allegations should be the subject of a statutory inquiry.
‘Concerns and reservations’
Alan Shatter says in his letter that he does not want his actions in connection with the allegations to distract from Government work, particularly in the run-up to the elections.
“I am anxious that any controversy that may arise on publication of the Report does not distract from the important work of Government or create any difficulties for the Fine Gael or Labour Parties in the period leading into the European and Local Government elections.
“It is my judgement that the only way in which such controversy can be avoided is by my offering you my resignation from Cabinet”.
In his letter, Shatter makes it clear that he was not entirely happy with the report, noting several “concerns and reservations” about it. He states that GSOC did not give any documents to Guerin in the preparation of the report, and that he himself was not interviewed about it.
The report itself could not make any determination of the complaints made by Sergeant MacCabe, which are now likely to be examined by an independent inquiry.
What happens now
Two things will happen next: firstly, a new Minister for Justice will be announced either this evening or else tomorrow morning.
And, crucially, the Guerin Report will be made public within the coming week and the full extent of the “extremely serious allegations” against some members of An Garda Síochána will become clear.
And, since they were already serious enough to see the Minister for Justice step down, it’s likely that more repercussions will follow.
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What are these people thinking!
Profits!
It’s only a matter of time before I see a cow in a tiny pair of speedos covered in fake tan in a field flexing his muscles.
Beef is so last year 2013 it’s all about horse!!
Hey leave my horse outside
How many steroids does it take to turn a cow into a horse ?
Ask sarah jessica parkers plastic surgeon ?
@ Stephen…
Oh dear Jases, I havn’t laughed that much in ages . 10/10
how many does it take to turn u into ass
Or for you to kiss mine !!!
JasuZ damo who pissed in ur cornflakes…..
Mad for ass that lad, mad for it..
This is arguably worse than the horsemeat scandal.
Irish beef is such a fantastic product, I’m surprised the IFA even let it get this far.
I mean, is this not Angel Dust by a different name?
The I.F.A. have a turnover of 44million and a retired cop on his pension as its leader …what makes you think that the I.F.A. care about farmers, farming or indeed the consumer …………. think Jack O’Connor and you have the I.F.A. …in my opinion ..
It’s as simple as this folks this is being done to open up the american beef producers to the european market and to hell with the consequences , the same thing happened when the original CAP was introduced but in that case it was the brazilian beef market and the result ? ………. rainforest destruction and no tarriffs put on Brazil ! …….It’s only a matter of time before drones fly over Ireland !
It is worse than the original article describes.
“At the same time as it scrapped illegal steroid use from cross compliance, the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament also dropped water quality from the same system of checks and balances.”
So while “feck it up” Phil is making rural dwellers pay for their septic thanks, his European colleagues want to lower standards. Can I have my money back, Phil?
Proof of the lobby groups power in Europe, We’re a member of a Cartel!
Short term greed, long term loss and when it all goes belly-up who’ll pay the tab? Why, the tax-payer, of course.
Why are we in the eu again?
Grants for farmers.
So they are saying to the farmers go ahead and break the law to make higher profits and we’ll continue to pay you to do it. Muppets. It would be very shortsighted of farmers to do this.
No-one knows what happens in the European Parliament which is why these bastards can get away with murder.
What have the Eurofanatics eg Brigid Laffan to say about this?
I see that they haven’t learned from the horse/beef scandal ….
I wonder will Ikea put steroids in their shit cakes?
Where were our farming organisations in all this?
Still bullshitting us that Irish meat can be trusted from “farm to fork”? While they picket Coveney’s office for more money.
Eat any meat at your peril, they are all pumped with hormones, antibiotics , growth promoters, animal vaccination , etc. they you kill them when they are in a slaughter house, pumping with animal adrenaline on top of all the chemicals. No wonder people’s body chemistry has changed for the worse
That it I’m finished with Irish beef going to Tesco’s and get English beef at least it wont have that shit in it.
This isn’t about Ireland, it’s about the EU and England is in the EU too.
That finish’s me with Irish beef only English beef from Tesco’s from now on it cant be any worse than this irish shit.
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