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Updated 6.20pm
ALAN SHATTER’S RESIGNATION was “inevitable” in the circumstances, the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said today.
Gilmore paid tribute to Shatter in a brief statement issued this evening having just a few hours beforehand backed the Justice Minister, saying at lunchtime that he was unaware as to when the Guerin report would be published.
“Alan Shatter is a talented legal thinker who worked incredibly hard on his reform agenda,” he said.
“He has had many accomplishments during his time in office, including reform of the legal profession, modernisation of the Courts, landmark personal insolvency legislation and modernisation and reform of the prison service.”
The Minister made “the right and honourable decision” Labour TD Kevin Humphreys said in his immediate response:
There has been shock around Leinster House at the sudden resignation on foot of the findings of the report by barrister Seán Guerin into allegations made by the garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe.
Fine Gael TDs said they had no prior notification of what was happening when the Taoiseach announced Shatter’s decision to step down just before Leaders’ Questions.
Justice Committee member and Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell said he was “taken aback” and said it would throw a lot of Shatter’s planned legal reforms “up in the air”.
His party colleague Eoghan Murphy said that the pace of reform in the Department of Justice will be slowed by the resignation.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the Guerin report should be published immediately. He said that there have been “very serious questions and issues raised for well over a year-and-a-half” in relation to the minister and that morale in An Garda Siochána is “very low”.
Martin, who gave the McCabe dossier to the Taoiseach, said that he and his party feel “vindicated” by today’s outcome, but said he “is not happy that any minister ever has to resign”.
Martin said: “He had an eternally adversarial approach to politics and to issues and he was very intolerant of people raising questions about his stewardship or about issues under his aegis. I think more than anything that was perhaps the reason for his resignation.”
In the Dáil, Gerry Adams said that no one in Sinn Féin would take any pleasure in the resignation of the Justice Minister.
His deputy Mary Lou McDonald said the whistleblower had been vindicated:
Sinn Féin’s justice spokesperson Padraig MacLochlainn said these are “very serious times” and that a fresh approach is needed by Shatter’s successor:
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd-Barrett said:
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He should have been sacked a long time ago.
In fairness Shatter has left us a great legacy in the finest tradition of Sir Boyle Roche, father of ‘Irish bull’……..
I now know that I can break the law, but not commit an offence…
Ireland…home of the not-so-rare blue-breasted GUBU…
The whole CORRUPT FG/Lab/FF crowd of gangsters are falling asunder – at last!
A General Election NOW please ?
Sharter
The Minister for “Justice & Equality” amongst other things.
Says it all about Irish politics.
Good riddance. He was and is an extremely arrogant individual. He along with Martin Callinan completely destroyed morale in An Garda Siochana. With a new start and a new Minister things can only improve….hopefully they will choose someone good, I have to say I greatly admire Simon Coveney. Very able, honest, hard working and committed to his portfolio…
Alan…. I’m very sorry to see you go…. Though you made a few mistakes…. Your intelligence, integrity and abilities stood head above many of your fellow politicians.
Though the public are like crabs in a barrel and your colleagues are too stupid, power hungry or ignorant … You will be missed and you can’t be replaced.
I would like to think that your exit would set an example…. But this would be wishful thinking. A majority of our politicians aren’t honourable, intelligent nor understand the meaning of integrity…. They’re nothing more than self – serving con artists.
Surely Loo Roll meant Sgt McCabe in her twit….wasn’t Garda McCabe murdered by her comrades….
He could not be sacked because KENNY has no balls
Yea and now he gets a nice fat pension wit no accountability…this country of ours is just down right stupid!play golf dig the garden,nice car,holidays ect!mess up and get rewarded..where would you see it!!!
Shatter didn’t reform the cops and prison services …,the EU done that
And of course Sinn Fein/ IRA are the answer to all the countries woes
Not forgetting the greeting those murderers got on their early release from prison, where another Sinn Fein/ IRA TD, Martin ferries was the there to whisk them away to their new found freedom….
So if that’s the level of contempt that Sinn Fein/IRA has for our gardai it’s a bit rich and hypocritical of them.
One down
More to go !!
It’s not one down though that’s the problem, he’s still get thousands of tax payers money with the big pension he’ll now receive. We haven’t started yet
He won’t receive any pension until he retires or looses his seat from the Dail.
Are you a betting man reg? Ill place a wager that by this time next year that man will be in receipt of at least 180000 in taxpayers money as a pension
No sure of the exact details but this government changed all the rules regarding political pensions a few years ago. They have to be retirement age also. Shatter’s probably not too far from that anyway.
I’ll say again, want to bet on that?
€180k pension? I’d put a couple of grand on that!
Anyone who backed him should also resign.
I total agree , Kenny , Gilmore , and the rest now should do the noble and resign .
I’d have been more delighted if he’d been man enough to go earlier.
At last .
Any chance enda will follow suit and resign before the elections? Wud save him and he’s party the embarrassment!
The Irish public wont miss ya Shatter!!!
Mary Lou gloating about Garda McCabe ??? Really ask her to comment on the other Garda McCabe and she’ll be struck dumb
Leinster House has an extremely low thresfold for shock.
you’d swear he kicked the bucket the way they’re carrying on, shur they’re probably told to act shocked.
Alan Shatter’s good pension will surely help soften the blow of being F**ked out on his ear…
Any chance you’d take Mick Wallace with ya. He’s served his purpose now too.
What a sacrifice hopefully his pension will compensate to some extent and I imagine that his mates will still pass work onto his legal firm.
His position had become untenable should have one ages, will O’Reilly follow suit?
Heading off to Clown College id say….
Im no fan of either mick wallace or alan shattar, but just heard one thing said by wallace on 6-1 news, and i believe it 100%. He said, ” there are a lot of problems, and you haven’t heard the half of them …”
Now, I wonder what the GSOC report will reveal.
Happy Days. Arrogant Basard
Take Phil Hogan and his big arrogant fcuking mouth with you please
Delighted!!!! lets hope some dirt comes up on phil hogan next would be nice to see that patronising gimp go next.
If Mr Shatter was honorable he would be blowing a few whistles himself. This guy knows all about the corruption and double dealing in the Anglo affair. He also knows what is going on in Irish Water.
Ireland don’t do sackings do they?
You don’t take responsibility by resigning and walking away, you take responsibility by sticking around and facing the music and then try and make things right.
Wait till Wallace here’s this I’m sure he’ll be gloating !
@Jason… By your comment…. Alan would’ve been damned if he stayed and your damning him for taking the higher road. He just couldn’t win.
The higher road? Skulking off with a huge pension isn’t noble Marlon. It’s the actions of a coward.
Jason Ebbs, Hell would freeze over before that creep Shatter could make things right again.
funny he only read 3 specific chapters and resigns straight away…..honourable is not a word i would use but i am sure the media will be awash with hand wringing by his fg/lab cronies….gilmore next as he has been giving shatter his full support at every turn…. bet we see those chapters in papers tommorrow… i wonder if shatter was mentioned in those chapters or did he tell porkies in the dail regarding whistle blowers…local elections and euro elections could not have come at a worse time especially as spokeswoman for irish water just confirmed an hour ago that unit prices for water have to increase to cover the loss of the standing charge…..Hogan asked by claire Byrne on Prime Time how can water that included €50 charge was average €240 and without standing charge its €240 so regulator is going to award irish water an increase before it even sends out a bill…
There are some opposition TD’s who just should not take the high moral ground…
Should have gone with Callinan.
The shit is about to hit the fan with the Guirin report.
Bonfires should be lit the length and breadth of the country after one leg of this poisonous scorpion of a govt has been severed,the most evil shower of people ever assembled.
So does he get a severance payment for resigning?
Yo
Shattered.
Let he who is without sin (in government) cast the first stone.
I’m convinced I saw him in Portugal over Easter, can someone confirm please? It’s driving me daft!
Ah come on, he was a bad fcuker, but blaming him for Madeline McCann is taking it too far, even for him :)
What part of Portugal Fiona ?
Ding dong the witch is dead!
He’s had the report for days if not weeks. This was no sudden decision to jump ship. It was carefully scripted by the PR fairies to try to deflect attention from the whole water tax fiasco. I don’t believe for one second that inda’s people got that speech, that he read out, together in a couple of hours this morning. So now he rides into the sunset with a golden handshake and numerous pensions, to laugh at us from afar, before sneaking back in a few years to sit on some board and laugh some more till the roundabout turns full circle. Timing aside, I for one am overjoyed to see the back of the odious little creep.
Does this mean we can give the navy boat a proper name…
He no doubt gets to keep all his pensions . rotten to the core the lot of them . the real parasites
What a great day for Ireland, i rejoice at his departure. I suspect there is no chance Leo will get the job he is just too honest. Please not Flanagan he bent over backwards to support shatter
This has the look of the government falling to bits and an early general election on the way.
Shatter is a massive loss to Kenny, although probably a relief to most others, and with a likely thumping at the upcoming local, Euro and by elections on the cards, he is looking at a long summer.
Prendergast has started the attacks on Gilmore, and it’s interesting that his first comment on Shatter was to say that he was out of the loop.
With more by elections due in the autumn, the Guerin report to come out and God knows what else round the corner, they don’t look to have much time left.
Great news!!! Great advert for his profession!!
Bout time what a arrogant man..
How thick are you all? Do you really think any minister from any party whilst in office runs their department? We still don’t have accountability and still fall back on blaming the elected repersentatives that have no power. Time to start looking at the real rulers! Who ‘advised’ Brian Lenehen? Who ‘advised’ Alan Shatter? Who is advising Michael Nooban, Joan Burton etc? Or future governments?
He took that up the shatter alright
Glad he’s gone but FG will blame everything that goes wrong for the next 9 months on him. ……. Good luck you pompous ass
Time for all opposition parties to show their worth now. With the elections pending every effort should be made to oust Kenny and Gilmore for their unfailing support of Shatter over these past months. If Kenny and Gilmore truly had confidence in Shatter they should show their support by also resigning. Failing that the opposition should put a motion of no confidence in this Govt.
So if Inda and Eamonn Frankfurt had full confidence in The creep a few days ago, do they still have full confidence now? Maybe only half confidence perhaps ? A teeny weeny bit of confidence? What a nest of vipers we have in this government, I though St Patrick got rid of all the snakes .
Alan Shatter had a propensity to overstate his case, never seem too know when he was winning.???
I suppose thats what you get from a supercilious man and arrogant as well.
His problem was that he had a very unpleasant attitude dealing with, in his view the unwashed ( ie. that means everybody else )
He will be terribly missed by the one or two friends he still has lleft in the Dail.
שלום ולהתראות
why? my westie sammy saw it coming< just shows the kind of jackass we have running the country!! by the way sammy is a westie dog,not a gang member.
Always remember when politicians say “I have full confidence in…” They really mean the victim is for the high jump! Shatter destroyed the Gardai and crime has flourised because of this.To say I have fukall respect for this government is an understatement , I despise them and look forward to the bloodletting at the elections !
As when Willie resigned he will get his guaranteed pension and a big pay off. This will come after the election and so will not affect anything.
Anyone taking bets on the new Minister?
have your say