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'When you tell the truth in politics you get into trouble - but the truth helps me sleep at night'

Alan Shatter opens up on the controversies that forced him to resign, Leo Varadkar and whether he says ‘hello’ to Mick Wallace.

shatter gif

Stuff happens in politics.

THIS IS HOW Alan Shatter responds when asked if it rankles with him that he’ll be remembered as a controversial and divisive justice minister.

This May will mark two years since the Fine Gael TD resigned as justice minister after reading just three chapters of the Guerin report into alleged malpractice in An Garda Síochána.

The report was a tipping point for Shatter. The various controversies that had dogged the minister formed a perfect storm, leaving him with no choice but to go as the local and European elections approached.

At the time, Fine Gael backbenchers were reporting back from the doorsteps that Shatter had become an issue. He doesn’t have much time for idle speculation by unnamed colleagues, but he does feel vindicated by what has happened subsequently:

Nicky Ryan / TheJournal.ie

“I’m happy that, in the context of some of the controversies that occurred, we now have independent reports that have established that what I said at the time was true, that I behaved appropriately and dealt with things properly as a minister,” Shatter told TheJournal.ie this week.

He’s referring to the Fennelly report, which confirmed his version of events leading up to the controversial departure of the garda commissioner, and the Cooke report into allegations that the Garda Ombudsman’s offices were bugged. He continued:

Unfortunately, I discovered in politics on occasions when you tell the truth you get into trouble. But, you know, the truth helps me sleep at night and it means that people who truly know me know I can be trusted. I’m happy with that.

The past doesn’t interest Shatter much and whenever we try and delve into it his answers inevitably conclude with talking about the future.

“I’m not obsessing on these things. I’m interested in where we go in the future,” he said.

But did he get anything wrong during his three-year spell at the Department of Justice?

Nicky Ryan / TheJournal.ie

Shatter insisted that “no one gets everything right” before spending some time talking, again, about how he has been vindicated.

He acknowledges that he could have ordered independent inquiries into some controversies sooner. However, he added:

I took the view that before inquiries are conducted you should get preliminary observations in relation to issues of importance and you have to take account of the cost to the public, and the public finances, because whenever any inquiry is held it always costs the public millions in State funding.

On the current state of the gardaí, Shatter has no “negative views of any nature” about current commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan and hopes reforms recommended by a Garda Inspectorate report last year will be implemented without delay.

He’s less complimentary about the current state of the health service, saying Fine Gael, while doing well on the economy, has not done enough in health:

I think there’s a need to have better oversight, better management, more incisive responses within the health service. I am very disappointed that we still have difficulties with A&Es.

On the current health minister, Shatter is lukewarm in his praise of Leo Varadkar:

Nicky Ryan / TheJournal.ie

He’s far more forthcoming on his constituency rival Shane Ross, who is effectively the leader of the Independent Alliance.

Shatter has little time for the grouping of independent election candidates, arguing that their charter of principles is nothing more than “the promises and commitments that reflects the sort of same old politics of the Fianna Fáil party at elections two decades ago”.

They present themselves as something new but it’s the same old same old politics that got us into the sort of trouble and difficulties that gave rise to the collapse.

He has no time either for the independent TD Mick Wallace, his old foe from the days when penalty points dominated the news agenda.

wallaceshatter RTÉ RTÉ

Wallace claims that, even though the pair no longer spar in the Dáil, Shatter doesn’t say ‘hello’ in the corridors of Leinster House. Shatter insists it’s not true before adding:

Look, I’m not going to waste time on Mick Wallace.

Shatter also has little time for the perception that permeates the political bubble that he is arrogant and aloof.

“Unfortunately in politics, on occasion, people who you believe to be colleagues have their own personal agendas. But I believe that anyone who truly knows me has never perceived me that way,” he said.

Whatever others might say about him he does hope the people of Dublin-Rathdown will re-elect him to the Dáil later this month.

His political career looked over after he lost his seat in 2002 only to regain it five years later. He was also thought to be in danger of not winning the party’s nomination for the election this time around – but he did.

Now it’s widely felt that Shatter’s ministerial career is over, but he still harbours ambitions of being back in cabinet should he win re-election.

“I don’t think there’s a politician on any side of the Dáil who doesn’t aspire to be in cabinet,” he added.

Read: Alan Shatter told us all about his famous campaign balls

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82 Comments
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    Mute Darren Davis
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:16 PM

    Thanks for the recipes. The soup was lovely, I’ll try the compost one for lunch tomorrow

    47
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    Mute Mal
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    Jan 12th 2019, 1:11 PM

    Thanks that does sound simple

    29
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    Mute ianglen
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:23 PM

    Neighbour put out a compost bin last at back of house and the rats had a field day.
    Put it as far away from your house if you can..

    14
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    Mute Brian McCarthy
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    Jan 13th 2019, 4:20 PM

    @ianglen: you’re putting the wrong stuff in the composter
    if it’s attracting rats

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    Mute Sean
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:59 PM

    Composting is amazing all right. Did you know that you can get rid of a 1000 pound cow in just six weeks by covering it in eight cubic yards of wood mulch? Basic recipe. Place the carcass on a bed of wood chips 2 feet deep, then cover it to a depth of about 4 feet, with at least 2 feet on the sides.It doesn’t attract flies or vermin or smell. It just disappears! All you are left with is some large bones.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Jan 12th 2019, 3:22 PM

    @Sean: How many suburban and town gardeners have got a 1000 pound dead cow to begin with?

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    Mute WoodlandBard
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    Jan 12th 2019, 4:18 PM

    @Garreth Byrne: i think this may have started as a Dublin gangster technique that eventually got adapted to farm animals.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Jan 12th 2019, 6:59 PM

    @WoodlandBard: I see. So composted dead cows and composted dead gangstas are equally effective in organic vegetable gardening, eh? IOFGA and the Soil Association might have reservations.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:48 PM

    Dampening it down with a bleach mix every so often gets rid of the smell and kills off the yucky bugs and insects

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    Mute Ryan Dub
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    Jan 12th 2019, 5:26 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: Do not put bleach in the garden.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 12th 2019, 5:44 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: would you tuck into a nice glass of bleach? If your answer is no, then do not put it on any compost that you intend to use for growing food. Also, if your compost smells that badly it means you’re doing it completely wrong.

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    Mute helen walsh
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    Jan 12th 2019, 4:45 PM

    Yes, how do you keep vermin away from compost heaps, their urine and droppings are bound to infect the compost heap…

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    Mute silentbob2012
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    Jan 13th 2019, 12:00 AM

    @helen walsh: simple. It’s not a black art.Everything for your compost heap must be uncooked and plant based. That means no cooked foods, no fats, no carbs, no oils. Egg shells excepted but it helps to break them down before chucking ‘em on your compost. Mix in cardboard, unbleached paper and newspaper from time to time, layered grass clippings, any garden vegetation as in the article above and away you go. If you’ve got rats or mice, you’ve been putting in foodstuffs.

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    Mute datagharch
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    Sep 18th 2019, 8:41 AM

    thanks alot

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    Mute David Cagney
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    Jan 13th 2019, 10:40 AM

    I don’t have a square yard, it’s more rectangular, with a circular end – so none of this is going to work.

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    Mute Ciarán Mac Cormaic
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    Jan 13th 2019, 4:55 PM

    @David Cagney: You might still be able to have the soup.

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