Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
JUSTICE MINISTER ALAN Shatter has declined to say whether or not he met with the controversial independent TD Michael Lowry despite other Cabinet members confirming meetings with the former communications minister.
Government ministers’ relationships with Lowry, who was the subject of adverse findings by the Moriarty Tribunal report last year, have come under scrutiny in recent weeks.
Environment Minister Phil Hogan, Health Minister James Reilly and Finance Minister Michael Noonan have confirmed they have met with the Tipperary deputy since March of last year when the Tribunal reported but Shatter has declined to confirm whether or not he met Lowry.
The Irish Independent reported at the weekend that a meeting was sought by Lowry last October in relation to the planned casino development at Two Mile Borris in Co Tipperary. At that stage, the Justice Minister had not confirmed whether or not the meeting had gone ahead.
Since Saturday, the Department of Justice has been asked on a number of occasions if it could confirm whether or not the meeting had transpired but a spokesperson has been unable to get an answer from the Minister.
“The Minister hasn’t provided me with an answer,” the spokesperson told TheJournal.ie yesterday.
The Moriarty Tribunal found that former Fine Gael minister Lowry had an “insidious and pervasive” influence over the awarding of Ireland’s second mobile phone licence in the 1990s to Denis O’Brien’s Esat Digifone company. Lowry has rejected the findings.
Last week, the Irish Examiner revealed that Hogan had met with Lowry days after the Tribunal reported its findings to discuss a matter related to a waste management company, Filmco, in Lowry’s constituency.
Reilly said that he had met Lowry over a nursing home in Tipperary while Noonan confirmed he met with Lowry when the Tipperary deputy led a delegation from the youth organisation Foróige.
Earlier this week, Lowry hit out at critics saying he was being unfairly victimised by media coverage of his meeting with ministers following the Moriarty Tribunal. He described certain media reports as “reckless” and “irresponsible”.
The Irish Independent reports this morning that Shatter declined to confirm whether or not he had met Lowry because he was “not participating in Independent Newspapers’ agenda”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Guilty by silence……..
Uh oh… Ireland’s Minister for Justice caught in bed with corrupt politician. No way. That would never happen!!!
@Pa McGarry
Shatter is a solicitor! He’ll get out of saying ‘yes’ in his own ‘legal’ way. He’ll speak for about 5 minutes, talking complete shite when asked the question and even at the end of it we won’t know whether he said yes or no!!!!!! Minister for Justice my ass!
We all know he did, we don’t need him to tell us. Fine Gael’s arrogance and ‘short with the truth’ about matters is very much worse than Fine Fail’s was. Fine Gael has had many years to listen and learn. Same o, same o! If I was in Joan Burton’s shoes, I would have given Eamonn Gilmore the biggest kick he ever got in the past few weeks. People elected him/Labour because they wanted and needed change. They needed politicians to tell the truth and ‘want’ to work for the people of Ireland. Sadly, Mr. Gilmore is, and has failed the people that voted Labour.
He gave the same answer a child would give “I’m not tellin’ “. Prime example of the gutless turds we have running Ireland.
Do the public, who elected him and pay his exorbitant wage plus ridiculous expenses not have a right to know whether he had dealings with a crooked politician? He sounds like a man backed into a corner and lashing out… Without confirmation and noting your behaviour regarding the matter mr. Shatter, we can only assume you DID hold a meeting with lowry and it’s outcome was favourable to him, else why try so defiantly to hide it? Jesus h. This coalition never ceases to amaze in the worst possible way.
More arrogance from these bunch of traitors.
And you know what should be done with traitors…..
William wallace comes to mind.
where are endas gold stars now?
@phantom duck nibbler
“Where the sun doesn’t shine”!
Surprise surprise, shatter avoids a difficult question..
How does this man ever expect the public to trust anything he says with an attitude like this?
He doesn’t give a shite what the public think of him…
It’s immaterial whether he says yes or no – or even answers for that matter. We know he did. His silence tells it all. The difficulty people will have with this horrible little individual is that he is a solicitor. He knows, I would assume, the law.
He accuses the Independent of having an ‘agenda’. We don’t need that ass to tell us that. They had an agenda for the Presidential election as did the Irish Times, we also know that Shatter has his agenda too!
arrogant muppets, how can we trust them?
I’ll take it as a yes that they did meet. Arrogant clown.
He’s a useless sh1te, in a party of useless sh1tes
Does he not have to declare all meetings in his diary?
@Grant Grieve
Usually, as a PA, myself, years ago …. all meetings are written in his diary and the PA’s. Sadly, meeting with sleezy, liars don’t always go into the diary (allegedly!) so the PA may not know about the meeting.
Mr Shatter, just “Get a life” and answer the question!!!
Crooks the lot of them !!! Election time can not come soon enough.
@ Ryan ONeill
Thankfully, I don’t think, I could be wrong, but I don’t think all of them are crooks. A few of them may be good, honest people, but unfortunately they may be dragged down with them. They have to speak up and be counted. I don’t think the country can afford an election and really I don’t see anyone to replace them.
There’s no real alternative though?
It’s pretty depressing when you see what’s out there as alternatives. I had high hopes for this bunch but feel let down, left and right. I know it’s naive and stupid to think they could have turned around such a huge mess in just over a year but even so. Irish politics needs a HUGE overhaul. We need to be able to impeach a government with relative ease.
Is it too early in the life of this Government to paraphrase Sarah Palin?
“So Ireland, how’s that hopey changey thing going for ya?”
A rare smile Danny, thank you.
It’s pot, kettle, black politics not one of those self serving political bast#rds can claim the moral high ground and start pontificating to each other, everyone of them has had there hands in the till and those who have been caught couldn’t care less as they know there peers won’t say a word as they’ll bring them down with them. When in Rome….
What are you hiding, Alan?
Ok so we’ll That as a “Yes, yes I did”
This guy becomes creepier with every passing day.
…As does his party become further exposed for their lies, u-turns and own involvement with those that are corrupt!
Why does the present government avoid openness and transparency, ?
The very thing that is badly needed in Irish politics.
…And one of the many things they promised !
@Susie,
Maybe they should be sat down, tied to the chairs and played the tape of them making these promises! They can’t makes excuses now, they’re there over a year.
Shatter always has a sumg ‘i dont care what you little people think’ look on his face, minister for ‘justice’ what f***in’ justice is there in this country when corrupt politians can meet with the minister for justice yet no sanctions are even being comtemplated against them. It’s us the ordinary workers who are being punished for all the wrong doings of our politians and financial leaders while at the same time they treat us with comtempt, especially that sumg looking ass**** Shatter
This guy is not suited to politics. He is one of the most uncomfortable media performers that I have seen in a long time. He inspires absolutely no confidence, has no personality and on top of this can’t answer a bloody straight question having had time to consider it. This one will be played out dramatically in the Dail shortly. How soon could there be a cabinet reshuffle, at the very least, to move the muppet from such a crucial post, as he is drowning here?
@ Sheila Byrne… I love your comments and fully agree most of the time but I don’t think they’re are any decent politicians anymore..so therefore there’s none to stand up and be counted . The only one that I can remember that made an impression on me is Pearse Doherty(when he brought FF to court over local elections I think). .. I’m fed up with FG, FF, LAB… Nothing honest about any of them.. Im giving SF the benefit of the doubt in the next election… They fought hard in the north in the civil war, (rightly or wrongly is a personal opinion), and I like to think they would do the same in the south for us…
@Lucille Ball,,
Thanks! I’d be a very independent person, but when I vote, I usually vote for the person with a fairly good history, not necessarily ‘getting things done’, but for their fighting spirit, truthfulness and honesty. I would watch that person for a long time, find out as much as I can about them, and if I still like them, I’ll give them my vote. They may not necessarily be an independent, but …. me as an independent allows me to vote for whom I want.
During the Presidential election, as far back as February 2011 I watched, listened and learned a lot about the delegates. I eventually decided on Senator David Norris. Why? many reasons, but I will give you a few and these ones would be what I’d expect from an honest politician. Honesty, truth, forward thinking, putting themselves 2nd to the electorate, people person, positive thinking and finally never judging any other human being. Grant it, I don’t see many of those characteristics in a lot of our politicians, but even if they have some of them, I’ll give them a thought!
This crowd that have been given a huge chance to bring Ireland back to a great tiny island as it was before, to me, are screwing (sorry if I’m being crude!) with the people of Ireland as the other crowd did. There is only so much the person on the street car take. There is only so much a parent can take when he/she looks at their child with special needs and feels, “sorry kid, we’re on our own”. Or the man/woman that has worked since they were 15/16yrs of age and now at 45/50yrs of age are thrown on the dump/dole queue and forgotten. Nobody knows how soul destroying that is on a human being. There will be riots on the street of every city in Ireland (that is not a threat) soon, if Gilmore and Kenny don’t start really working together and also making these bastards accountable for their actions, lies, thieving.
shatter not saying whether he ever pulled his wire…
not news move on…
It is news if it means another government minister voted in by the people is isn’t telling the truth…maybe it’s the entertainment section your looking for??
Is there any better than fg in opposition at this particular moment in time?, that’s the killer, if there was a general election in the morning
Independents
@Jay Funk
Independents? Like Michael Lowry?
Give Gerry Adams a chance
No government anywhere does open and transparent.
He can run but he cannot hide forever he is like a snake in the grass.
So Shatter proves again that he doesn’t believe he is answerable to the Irish people… He needs to find another line of work.
Transparency, I like it……..
Is this the same muppet who has outsourced policework to a private entity, namely Integrated Risk management in Co. Mayo and who have closed roads and physically detained protesters even though as civilians they have no legal entitlement to do so? These operations are conducted in the full view of Gardai and legally amount to assault, illegal detention and obstruction of traffic! And yet the brave Irish media, including the Journal don’t even report it! The people of Ireland have surrendered their rights which were obtained at a terrible cost and can be said to deserve the mess they have created!
Beir Bua!
“I won it on the horses” “I won’t say if I met him or not”,… Spot the difference,? Nah,me neither,!
I have no time for lowry he makes me sick. I also can’t understand why he tops the poll every election. The corruption around lowry is not new. It’s been around for years. What I can’t understand is the big deal about fellow td having meetings with him . Like it or not (and I don’t) he is a elected td and is within is rites to meet minsters. You can agrue he should not be a td but u can’t complain that he is doing the job he was elected to.
Ahhh Alan…. Tell me how long have you been displaying these signs of paranoia,, that the media have an agenda against you…….
If you want a snapshot of this government then look no further than shatter…Smug and arrogant…..Another reason why having experience does not necessary make you the candidate best suited to hold the justice portfolio….
I think we can safely assume he did then.
The only way you can become a politician is to be a little bit ropey or become ropey to survive
Stroke,s ,lie,s and no conscience about junket,s or expenses
why would they give a f..k about us the ordinary hardworking ( the ones lucky to have a job ) people. when they have their over inflated salaries for the next four years and then a golden handshake plus a pension for life.?
have your say