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 told the Dáil it finds it “a little bit difficult not to totally throw up” while listening to independent TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan complain about alleged Garda corruption.
Shatter made the comments after Flanagan insisted that last year’s revelations about penalty points being wiped from the driving licences of well-known public figures suggested a degree of corruption within the Garda.
Flanagan told the Dáil that his investigations into the issue had convinced him that the penalty points issue appeared “to be only the tip of the iceberg” and that complaints of alleged Garda corruption had not been made before now simply because people were scared to blow the whistle.
“As a member of the public and as a parent I would like to believe that if a murder is committed in this country it will be properly investigated,” Flanagan said, before quoting comments from Fine Gael back-bencher Michael Creed, who last month said Gardaí had participated in “omerta-style collusion” in covering up the murder of Fr Niall Molloy in 1985.
Flanagan said the revelations about penalty points showed “quite clearly that in this country some people are more important than others”.
Shatter was not pleased to hear Flanagan’s comments.
I’m afraid the sight of the deputy in full flight standing on a moral soapbox just makes it a little bit difficult not to totally throw up. [...]This from a member of this house, who encourages people outside of this house to engage in illegalities. This from a member of this house who believes it’s appropriate that 70 to 75 per cent of people pay their property tax, but is happy to encourage others not to do so.
This from a deputy in this house who has encouraged people to violate a law and create difficulties for this state in a European context.
This from a deputy who boasts of his drug-taking! This from a deputy who has been convicted before the courts!
Deputy, if you’re going to morally lecture the rest of us, just be aware that the soapbox you’re resting on is resting on sand – quicksand that is rapidly disappearing under you.
The ULA’s Clare Daly questioned Shatter’s earlier assertions that members of the technical group were prejudging the Garda Commissioner’s investigation into the penalty points affair, saying the investigation was already fatally flawed by ignoring some of the allegations made.
“We’re not prejudging, we’re basing it on the evidence,” Daly said. “All of the evidence tells us that that inquiry is already discredited.”
Shatter suggested Daly did not want the matter investigated, but instead wanted “to be told there was some sort of conspiracy. You’ve all made your minds up a long time ago”. He added:
Weren’t you holding press conferences outside this house, in Buswell’s, where material that is protected under the Data Protection Act which revealed the identities of individual was [...] breathlessly revealed by all of you?
Referring to the dossier of PULSE records obtained by a Garda and released by the TDs in December, Shatter said no police force in the world could tolerate a situation where a member believed they could access the force’s computer systems.
“I can reiterate and say to deputies: that is one bit of a problem that could impact detrimentally on innocent members of the public. That cannot be allowed to happen.
Shatter said he expected the Garda investigation into the penalty point issue to be concluded within the next three to four weeks.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic. To think that these are the people we have placed in power really rises my bile.
@ Jim what where we thinking. On another note,listening to what comes out of Shatters mouth, the whole country could be sick..
Jim — You could always run for election yourself.
I’m thinking about it petr.
Have to be honest. Tottally agree with shatter on his points made, well said. That ming is a moron and it is so very embarressing that he was elected.
Why so cholly appleseed?
Jim
You’re right. At the next election the people must remove Ming Daly and Wallace.
Just because he has a ‘chequered past’ doesn’t mean he’s wrong; it’s irrelevant and represents a poor effort by Shatter to defend the indefensible..
Ming is honest, that’s why he’s not liked.
As long a Fine Gael and Labour go FF dont gain power and the next gov repeal their FG\Labour pensions I’ll be Happy. Ming and Mick are not very efective in oppostion but I like both men.
When i didn’t hear you’re boss apologise yesterday, i wanted to throw up Shatter
Amongst the things he didn’t apologise for were the actions of the guards recapturing the Magdelene slaved and returning them to their captivity.
Pharmyco
Interesting to note that ordinary members of the public returned more escapees than Gardai!
Maybe so, but the guards have a mission to protect and serve. Complicity in slavery is hardly adequate protection for vulnerable citizens.
Says yer man who laughed he could close a 100 Garda stations in an instant – and did!
Do they think we can’t see that they never answer the question?
Throw a load of abuse at the opposition when they ask a question and job done, panic averted.
Himself and kenny are masters at this tactic.
Makes me sick!
Did you hear kenny earlier respond to a question about the magdeline laundries by mud slinging at sinn fein?
This is a leader of a country answering questions in a house of representatives about state collusion in enslaving girls?
Disgusting behaviour.
They carry on regardless. It takes some brass neck to keep it up but they just can’t stop now. They know they’re losing it, and they don’t care about what people in the future have to deal with. 99% of politicians make me want to become a hermit.
Agreed. Always going for the man and not the ball. Justs proves the dont have the answers. And the smug look on there faces while throwing this muck would make you sick.
Think that’s ironic, check out the Shatter comments when other side of the house re mag house, words like “state sponsored” “compensation” and “apology” we’re all used.
They really must think Irish public are stupid, well I suppose stupid is as stupid does, and acceptance/compliance of Irish citizenship means we possibly are a stupid lazy race of people, maybe?
The mud-slinging and question averting is pathetic. They should be deducted a week’s wages for any ad hominem attacks.
Shatter is an absolute disgrace for saying such absolute tripe. This kind of mudslinging approach is what happens in the Dail all the time and these same fools want to censor people on the internet?
Let’s be honest – it’s always more important to engage in constructive discussion but with this and other examples of simply attacking another’s character with such smugness, sometimes people need to be called on it, and sometimes that call is “dikhead”.
The hypocrisy from Alan Shatter never ceases to amaze, I think he really does not understand the term Irony.
It was difficult not to throw up watching Vincent Browne expose the arrogant hypocracy of Alan Shatter last night by showing the video of him from 2009 speaking about state involvement in the magdeline laundries compared to his disgraceful behaviour on the very same subject the last 24 hours.
Watch it if you have not seen it already. See how much integrity our minister for justice has……
Here it is:
Nice find, thanks.
Shatter is right !
This from a minister who blinks his eyes far too much to be honest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REy5aG4e0-o
you can tell everything time this fella is interviewed he is spoofing it, espeically here.
really, really do not understand how this thing is in government.
Shatter has the integrity of a Skunk, a Dead One.
Hahahaha what a gimp your are shatter ! 5….4…..3….2……1….. Plunderturds are go !!!!!
Shatter needs to stick to the question he was asked, and not insult a mans character just cause he asked him a difficult question. Ming Flanagan’s opinions or views on any other matter doesn’t have anything to do with Garda corruption nor should it.
Legislate what? Pot head
Really informed and educated input there calling me a pot head, thanks…
Lucky being a fool is legal. You’d be close to a life term otherwise Michael.
troll
Sort of ironic too that I talk in my initial comment about how people cannot see past certain beliefs that I share with Ming Flanagan regarding cannabis legalisation, and just as Shatter can’t see past that nor can Mr. Kelleher here.
It’s great to hear real constructive comments on this site from anonymous readers if you really believe in what your talking about I D yourself and stop hiding POT HEAD
I am Adebayo of the Flynns and I love weed.
@ Michael. The name is Tom McShane, I’m living in Galway. You can find my personal twitter here; http://www.twitter.com/treckez. Believe me, I am not hiding behind anonymity. I believe fully in my cause, And I encourage you to educate yourself further on the matter before going online and calling people pot heads.
Well done for showing who you are. I’m unfortunately well informed about drugs and there use never used never will. But I’ve seen first hand how starting on cannabis escalates onto harder drugs and how people destroy there lives. I do believe in its controlled use for medicine etc. but once you fully legalise that what’s next E
E!!! Lol, go back to your cave will ya ffs
Michael – Not really the article to discuss this but since we started I may as well express my opinion. You say that cannabis escalates into harder drugs. This is something that has no scientific proof and is simply not true. There is links however between the illegality of cannabis and it being a gateway drug for users to getting other, harder, drugs. As the drug is currently illegal, You have to go to a “drug dealer” to get it. These guys might also be selling coke etc and will try and sell it to the user as well as they can make more of you from it. If the person really wants to try a harder drug, cannabis isn’t going to make them do it more. Its the persons preference. You ask what is next, ecstasy? I don’t believe that this should be the case, ecstasy is a harmful drug, and could possibly cause dehydration, thus killing or giving brain damage to the user. This is usually linked to the way it is taken, as well as the effects of the drug itself. Cannabis has none of these ill effects on health.
The last time I heard the gateway drug argument was years ago. It’s been put to bed a long time now. Go get informed.
And yes decriminalise it all.
Why was cannabis outlawed in the first place there is far worse drugs out there that are legal this conversation has fallen from the main topic jus because of the TD involved and the commentators profile pic
lol at Michael. Your kind will be thankfully dead in the next 30 years. I’m looking forward to a more enlightened society then were people can wreck themselves on pills if that’s what they’re into.
I love hearing middle aged people pontificating about drugs they have never taken whilst their gut from decades of alcohol/chip abuse is spilling over their jeans. I still dabble a bit (yokes, speed, acid…nice stuff) and I’ve never come to harm. Have at PhD, a woman, a car, a cat.
Michael for someone who claims to be well informed about drugs, you come across as being fairly ignorant on the subject, the gateway drug fallacy is pretty outdated at this stage, it’s just one of Harry J. Anslinger’s many lies that made cannabis illegal in the first place.
It’s hard to believe that the U.S Government fell for this nonsense, but here’s the scare tactics and ignorance that were used to make cannabis illegal – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXDg-BhMrjU
@cannabis freedom. That movie “reefer madness” is on the canadian netflix, its funny how history changes things. It was used to scare people like Michael and now its watched on netflix and laughed at. Mind you, you’d probably need to be fairly baked to be able to sit through that movie in full ha.
Good man, keep taking the tablets
@ Michael. I am very anti drugs mainly because I have seen a frw of my friends dieing of drug related incidents .
I have never tried them myself outside tobacco and alcohol and have mo interest in doing so but I have witnessed the help cannibis gives to MS sufferers and the quality of life it gives them.
It will at some stage be legalised and controled .
At some point pretty soon you’ll be able to watch a film on tv called “Breaking the Taboo”. If you watch it with an open mind and do some research you’ll find out a few things like:
the “soft drugs leads to hard drugs” argument is bs
that treating addiction as a health issue works in parallel with decriminalisation and/or legalisation and brings the issue out into the open to give addicts some hope
that the drug trade does nothing but cost millions to society while making millions for drug traffickers
that Forbes magazine listed Pablo Escobar as one of the 10 richest people at one point
Adebayo your a great man. Just saying ;-)
Peace. Criminal gangs dissolved.
Difficult not to throw up on his stupid one liner ‘jokes’
Alan Thunderbird Shatter the whole country gets sick when they listen to you.
Has your wife apologised for drink driving shatter?? Or does she, like you have no morals either, or
simply think she’s above the law??
Don’t know, maybe it was Squashed.
Why should she apologise?
All this article tells me is here we have another Minister failing to deal with the questions/allegations and instead attacks the messenger.
Ming always hits them with the hard questions that’s why they resort to you smoke pot Ming u shut up Ming my dad is bigger than your dad Ming.Childish crap from the so called Minister for Justice Equality & Defense.Justice for who equality for who defense for who oh ya his buddies.
its funny how two weeks ago it was all “bullying causes suicide” and then this week the comments he makes about a fellow minister could be construed as bullying
I was watching Dail live ming asked him about penalty pints and was their cover ups in gardai because a FG td said there was in a murder of a priest .Fair question what did he get back from Shatter go way ming you make me want to Puke you druggie basically .Avoided the question with schoolyard tactics .Ridiculous behaviour from a Minister for Justice.
“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”
― Socrates
Mr Shatter would do better to address the question properly rather than going for cheap shots. The idea that a member of the Gardai is in this day and age investigating alleged Garda wrongdoing is very disturbing indeed. Very disappointed in the minister.
Actually guards feared out alot better we ombusman. Contrary to popular belief officers of high rank would be gunning to get gardai unfairly and unjustly. Looks good on cv for promotion. So to be honest anyone who thinks ombusmas was really a way of annoying guards, totally wrong. Gardai have some issues with ombusman but by far its better then what was there.
As for this plenty points thing its a non story. Firstly only someone of superintendent rank or above can cancel them not your average guard. In alot of cases too it might be innocent a mom doing school run gets nabbed by van and not spotting it gets nabbed on way home. Gets 2 tickets 4 points and 160 fines in space of 5 mins writes in to officer and superintendent might just say to be fair you have no convictions never been in bother ill cancel one ticket.
Thats not corruption, its compassion. Ming, oh good lord did he land well with protest votes him clare and mick sure what can you say really.
Also shatter is one to talk. Makes me want to vomit listening to him
Independent TD Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan sounds like a real politician, dealing with real matters in the real world, and Minister Alan Shatter sounds like the Mad Hatter is trying to get away from him. Let’s legalise Ming.
Shatter is playing the man and not the ball, as usual. He won’t go down in history as one of our most reforming cabinet ministers, that’s for sure.
At least ming was prosecuted in court ..Shatter deserves to be locked up now .
Lower than a snakes belly.
That is all.
.
Ming may be hard on the ears and eyes but he calls a spade a spade on the other hand Shatter doesn’t know what a spade is
Well done Minister Shatter, your reply to Ming was spot on! He is only concerned about small matters like bog cutting and smoking weed. He would be great Ina town council or a residents association. When you think about how much work has to be done to get our Country out of such a hole every time Ming speaks Roscommon has to be mentioned. He never thinks of the big picture.
Please Ming go back to Roscommon and sort out your issues like playgrounds and snooker tournaments and let the Government sort out the mess we are in like a good man.
Remember you we’re only elected on the back of a massive opposition vote for the last Government and you better enjoy your time because you won’t get in the next time that’s for sure.
and you think fine gael labour or ff will be back in power. you are the dope. make way for sinn fein in power and ming re elected.
You can insult Ming all you want but to the people who are been stopped cutting turf on their own land, it is no small matter.Don’t talk about something you know damn all about. Are you happy that that small matter of bog owners are been paid €1500 each over ten years while their bogs sit idle waiting to grow heather. That’s taxpayers money, my money.
They would all do Well To Remember That They Were Elected On The Back Of A Protest Vote. Pity The People Don’t Have The Balls to Protest.
And you think that this lot will get back in again ?????
Well Alan Shatter only cares about D4, hes just slimy enough not to mention it.
Smoking weed, yeah it’s such a small matter that we’re fuelling organised crime by continuing with our failed cannabis prohibition policy, allowing criminals control a market where they’re able to contaminate their product and sell it to minors. When your son or daughter is caught in possession of of a bit of weed and they end up with a criminal record for the rest of their lives, we’ll see how much of a small matter it is then.
And legalising it, sure it’s probably only worth about €100m annually in tax revenue and it would only free the garda & judiciary system up a little, it’s not like they have more serious crimes to be attending to.
1) he takes control of the independent judiciary through their wages.
2) attempts to give himself more power through a failed referendum.
3) seeks to introduce laws to decrease access to lawyers and the courts.
4) decreases the number if Garda stations and imposes harsh cuts on their salaries.
What’s next…
A new special police force.
A new series of courts and non independent judges.
A camp for Fine Gaelers in the Wicklow mountains!
Camp for non Fine Gaelers*
Steady.
@jp… Do you lift
I don’t often finding myself agreeing with Mr Shatter but in this instance he is totally correct. Mr Flanagan is in no position to lecture others.
Cocaine taking rife in the Dail before Ming ever got elected was all over the news catch up.
Alan Shatter’s pre-Christmas post-Budget joke:
“Oh my, we’re delayed, we have another 10 minutes. I wonder how many more Garda stations I could close down in 10 minutes!”
Throw up? No, just throw him out..
Lock them all in Leinster house and burn it too the ground and start fresh!
can we lock u in there aswell before we lite it?
Ming is a legend, a breath of fresh air in the Dáil. By contrast Shatter is unfit to be a Minister, completely useless at his job. His only agenda is cutting the department budget to facilitate payments to bondholders. This has to be one of the unluckiest departments EVER to have suffered the “services” of Shatter, Mc Dowell, Dermot Ahern and John O’Donoghue. Hopefully Ming will be Justice Minister in the next government. And hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later.
I presume that it was a different Garda force that brought women back to the magdalene laundries and didn’t follow up investigations into child rape and misplaced evidence when told to by senior bishops.
I don’t like Alan Shatter, I don’t like Claire Daly and I don’t like Luke Flanagan, phew my that felt good!!!
And I don’t see too many redeeming features about you either David, we have common ground already.
Ming Flanagan – a deputy of this house who was democratically elected by the people because of his views, opinions and policies. A true hero of the people who seeks true progress and honest, open discussion in Irish life and Irish politics.
Una,I brought up the fact that Alan shatters wife was convicted of drink driving, thus breaking the law, and seen as shatter accused ming of breaking the law and not apologising I thought it was a little bit ironic from him, since a member of his own family has
done the same
Both of them make me puke.
Difficult listening To u shatter U scab
Liars cheats and traitors, that’s what we have in Govt.
And that’s what we expect to protect our best interest and the interest of our families.
Maybe we do need the Country to fall down around our ears so we can remake a better Ireland where Political Parties like Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour will never EVER be able to take advantage of their people again.
i hate you so much ya dirty troll !!!
Pa Mrf. You are obviously a member of either Fine Gael or Labour. Well done.
I hope you are proud what the traitors you voted in have done to our Country.
Toby it wasn’t in response to that post it was a general comment in relation to the majority of your comments you are a loser who loves to troll with your narrow minded opinions ……….
And dont be making stupid comments about the state of the country because your usually all for cuts and thats why i hate you ya loser !!!!!!!!!
Pa Mrf. Take your head out of your bum. I am for the overpaid Bankers taking cuts and the overpaid top level Public and Civil Servants as well as our corrupt Politicians and Govt.
So hate me all you like. It doesn’t matter a damn. You and yours will get exactly what’s coming to you.
What about Government Corruption they could teach anyone or anything to be Corrupt.
Each as irritating and offensive as the other.
I like Ming, he seems like a decent sort who actually cares about the people of the country.. I do get fed up the way anytime he opens his mouth about anything he’s shot down & called a junkie or mocked because of how he dresses or looks by a Bunch of smug middle class arseholes..
shatter never addressed the issue Ming referred to, wormed out of it by abusing the man who raised issue instead… No surprise really as this form of answering in the dail is widely accepted.
Some people’s views towards cannabis are just ridiculous. Don’t judge it till you’ve danced round the sitting room with your dog on its hind legs, ate copious amounts of maltesers & marvelled at there brilliance while having the best laugh with your friends watching south park/family guy/prime time/ the Angeles.. I advocate everyone try this at least once. Makes life less ordinary.
the gardai want to throw up every time shatter speaks. must be coming down with blue flu
So on the question of Garda corruption! Yay r nay?!?!
yay corruption is everywhere
Ted was right ” But let me tell you this! There used to be a time
when the police of this country were friends of the church!
Drink driving charges quashed, parking tickets ripped up, even
the blind eye turned to the odd murder! But now!”
I’d almost move to Roscommon to vote for Ming. Almost.
Labour and Fine Gael falling apart at last
In fairness there should be a day of executions held in kildare street for the likes of shatter and the rest off the lazy money grabbing zombies in that dail.. While most people might not agree with Ming lifestyle at least hes not afraid to ask a question and probe things that most people up there wouldn’t dare.. Unfortunately they are not very forthcoming with answers and the same usual waffleing/slagging each other bullshit.. At least Ming is honest about his past and beliefs while the other crowd of Mé Feiners just let you know what you want to know..
It is difficult to hold on to one’s lunch when listening to Mr. Shatter claim he is a public representative. I don’t imagine he’ll win too many votes in Stepaside at the next election. Then again he may not run, claim his pension and return to his day job having made a g*e of being a Government Minister
If the backbenchers were allowed to speak their own minds more than shatter would be getting sick, the whole country is getting sick listening to the present government,
It’s a lot more difficult not to throw up listening to Alan Shatter talking about anything, particularly after his shocking performance on Six One News last night
I despair that a man with such a poor grasp of logic could be a minister in our government. Legality and morality are not syonymous, nor is an action in any way immoral simply because it happens to be illegal.
Shatter and Ming are birds of a feather.
Don’t often agree with Shatter…but Ming is a bit of an idiot….or those who put him there are?
That poor man Shatter will vote with the party no matter what so socialized into bad behavior his moral compass is completely destroyed. If the party voted to so something totally mad like say pay 41 billion for nothing or something mad like that he would vote for it!! Even if you didn’t owe it really that’s how bad he is. Does his opinion count not really he will go with the party regardless of madness, Sadness or badness.
I’m surely no fan of Shatter but I have to agree with him here
i do not like this Luke Flanaghan was voiceing his opinion on a matter to him a real person talking real [probloms in society am from a county of louth where you see our local judge Flann brennan walking into the off licence in ardee tennetys and he does be pissed out of his head walks outr with his whisky and jumps in his car drives away pissed as a fart and then he got caught more than once off the local gardai and guess what he got away with it and all it is is a rumour spread by ppl who see him do it all the time and still does it. its a crime that the gardai do let our high society off with things. and as for that fool shatter the bull shitter he criticizes a man who was in court for smoking a joint or two and con-downs his party leaving ppl that they get evicted from there houses and also the rates of suicide have risen loads since fina gael came into power from men in this country killing them selves because of the financial difficulties that they are left in because of this government so who is the criminal in this case. Luke Ming Flanagan is one of a few ordinary every day citizens that are in government and the rest are capitalist Nazi snobs who have not got a clue how to run a country only how to be greedy and how top make the rich richer.
I usually have no time for shatter, but on this occasion, his condescending, almost contemptuous put-down of the Ming is quite eloquent, and deserved.
He is easily the most unlikeable dail member in recent times. Who votes for this guy?
which one,,,,,shatter or flanagan????
My dislike of shatter is almost matched by my dislike of Flanagan….
I know they say ignorance is bliss, but some of you FG> FF> heads take the biscuit, if this is your opinions it’s no wonder the country is paying billions of euro to europe, and who put us in this situation might i ask, FG> FF> were in power, not Ming, and since it has happened he has gone and got educated into finding out the hows & whys of it. instead you slag him off. Feckin Typical, if you were to give FG< FF< a lie detector test on there colusion into Garda coruption, you would have enough to write a book, we all know there is one rule for the rich & one for the poor.
We need a few hundres Mings in Government to sort there mess out, as for drug taking he's honest & and also warning people to stay away from dangerous drugs, but as usual FF< FG< are good actors, if you need reminding of there promises to keep Roscommon Hosp open or have you people forgot !!!! As Michael Collins always said"Never let your mother know she reared a Gibber"!…..
have your say