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MINISTER FOR JUSTICE Alan Shatter has spoken about the ongoing row over Deputy Mick Wallace and penalty points.
Speaking today, Minister Shatter said that he was told at a garda briefing on road traffic offences that Wallace benefited from garda discretion after being found driving while using a mobile phone.
He said that:
in the context of the general briefing that I received about the exercise of garda discretion, the example of discretion being exercised in the context of Deputy Wallace was given to me. And I have no row about the exercise of that discretion. I have not, nor will I suggest, that Deputy Wallace did anything improper.
Shatter said that what he took issue with was that Wallace “has made the case that the gardaí are acting unlawfully” by using discretion.
Now, as a minister I have an inconvenient habit of telling the truth about issues. It occasionally gets me into trouble, telling the truth. I am quite willing where I think there is a public interest to confront an issue where there is reform needed, to address the need for that reform or where people are making cases that deserve questioning.
The Minister said the only reason he raised the issue is because the Deputy is a public personality.
He said he felt it important to point out to Deputy Wallace that he had benefited from discretion, “but as far as he was concerned it was always going to be a major scandal if others did so”.
Shatter said he thinks it is “regrettable that Deputy Wallace forgot the incident” and welcomed his comments this morning about the incident.
The Minister also commented about the “wild and wonderful suggestions that have been made, that I as Minster might be spying on my opponents”, and described this as “absolute arid nonsense”.
He also said that that he has no time or interest in spying on anybody, and that it is important that people do their democratic duty in the Dáil. Shatter said that in no circumstances will he deliberately seek information from any member of the force to in anyway target any Dáil deputy.
‘Conspiracy’
Shatter also rejected suggestions of a “sort of a conspiracy to spy on members of the opposition” as all “completely nonsense”. Shatter said he wanted to emphasise that Wallace “did nothing wrong”.
If he is guilty of anything, it is hypocrisy but he is not guilty of anything else.
According to Shatter, if Deputy Wallace makes a complaint about him with the Standards in Public Office Commission he “will happily respond to it”. He also said he will leave it for the general public to judge whether Deputy Wallace “standing on a soapbox and leading the charge to present himself as the champion of both ethics and standards has credibility”.
The Minister said that under the duty that he was under to ensure maximum transparency in dealing with these issues, if he had not referred to that matter he could have been accused of covering up the fact that the discretion was exercised in favour of Deputy Wallace.
Shatter said he thinks it is important that the general public are in a position to judge the credibility of individuals. He said there is no question of him using private information, and that he was surprised the issue came up during the briefing.
I was given the detail of how the discretion is applied and the different circumstances, and that particular matter came up purely as an incidental, and indeed I didn’t have too much regard for it because I took the view that he didn’t in any way behave unlawfully.
The Minister wouldn’t be drawn on whether Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan was present at the garda briefing.
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Shame on them both one , resign the two of them and save each other from further embarrassment , a disgrace to both there job’s
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/odea-remains-defiant-amid-resignation-calls-26633275.html
This article says it all ; the last few paragraphs from Mr. Shatter particularly ! What does hypocrite mean Mr. Shatter?
Come on Ollie, you have totally fallen for Shatter’s trick to get some of the attention back on wallace. Shatter broke Data Protection Laws, And he’s an arrogant and bitter swine ball. We need rid, this is the time,
I’m no fan of Shatter but Wallace has double standards .
Bote of there jobb”’s shud go.
Well said mate
Well done Rose
Bote ‘off’ .
Justification for abuse of position because Mick Wallace is a ” public personality.” Does the Mnister intend to use his position to ambush other public personalities? Once again the illusion of common decency in our elected representatives is shattered.
Exactly, bet he’s not as forthcoming on misdemeanors of his own party members, Shatter is the biggest hypocrite of them all.
Why wouldn’t he say if the commissioner was present at the so-called briefing? What difference does it make? Providing he’s telling the truth, of course!!
He wouldn’t have needed or even had a reason to repeat it except for the fact Wallace was being hypocritical.
Should Shatter not be more concerned as to why the offence was ignored? Are we all now free to use our phones while driving once?
Maybe Shatter will redeem himself by taking Brendan o’Connor off the airs in a scandal. Who knows maybe he already has a dossier on him.
Mike that is an ignorant and idiotic comment.
Yet again, a Minister for Justice abuses his position.
Reminds me of McDowell and his carry on the Dail.
Disgraceful stuff!
Shatter used information he came across as Minister for Justice to launch a political attack. If the offense was recorded it would have been in the public domain. The Guard used discretion, which is fine. Guards are not control freaks but Guardians of the Peace.
This is Haughey/Ahern FF style politics and Justice. It is not acceptable. Political policing is not acceptable.
As the editor of the Phoenix said last night, the best stories are always the ones leaked to damage your own party colleagues. Removing opponents and ensuring loyalty.
He does not know the meaning of truth, its only the truth when it suits him, Election promises spring to mind
Is mike a poor quality troll or a simpleton?
For god safe have a heart,mick Wallace is honest,and brought all this in the open how dare you,,,
To be fair even FF didn’t abuse the justice system like this
Mick Wallace is honest? Please tell me that’s sarcasm that I’m not picking up on? He lied on his tax returns & lied on prime time with his “I don’t recall” bull shit. I’m no fan of shatter but Wallace is a disgrace
Oh Jesus, if you think that is true, that is why we are in such a mess
No matter how long this drags on for, Shatter will never resign for what he did even though he should.
What did he do? Used knowledge he happened to have to stop a hypocrite preaching at us?
He’s explained how he got the information. What would the grounds for resignation be?
So this is what shatters excuse was?
He heard it at a Gestapo oh sorry Garda briefing.
This lad is using your police force as spies for fine gael to present a better public image of themselves.
Are YOU ok with this???
He used this information that should have been private and used it for his own political gain. That is what i have a problem with also i saw on broadsheet a few days ago from who i think it was Elaine Byrne that outlined what Shatter did and why he should not have done it.
For being a dirty liar for a start and abuse if power. Is he paying your wages, Brian
I don’t like Wallace much and felt he should have resigned. I now see Shatter as the same but to a more serious and threatening degree to the State.
Well said
You bet Wallace is ok,Look at Scatter the liar he is and his position
It’s a pity they wouldn’t grow up and start governing a country that needs strong and decisive politicians and stop bickering like children
This seems a pretty black and white case, Shatter was very much in the wrong using the information he recieved in this way. I don’t se how anyone could argue otherwise. The fact he has decided to brazen it out with the 100% backing of Enda is incredible.
I think an initial acceptance of wrongdoing and appology would have been enough if it was something said in the heat of the moment but this is quickly turning into a resignation matter. The arrogance and stupidity of FG on this is amazing to be honest.
Right or wrong- Shatter has a point!
Wrong! The ball is placed on the penalty spot. Fine! Shatter steps up to give the kick and scores an own goal. Incredible.
Shatter is wrong. He has no point.
He has a point?? To follow this logic in a different example, what he seems to be saying is that if the DPP decide not to prosecute a case, this is the same as a prison guard setting a convicted criminal free on grounds of discretion.
They are two completely seperate things, if penalty points are issued the police have already considered discretion and decided against it, nobody ever complained about them using their discretion in the first place so the muddy the waters by mixing the two is a total con on shatters behalf.
Shatter = merkals gimp
Ciaran , we must remember that in history , Fascism and Fine Gael are joined at the hip .
The fact that Minister ( For Justice & Equality ) Shatter, has this information to hand ( though no penalty points or fines were even threatened ) shows the depths that this type of political big brother mindset will go to, in bypassing democracy and what’s legal.
Reminders of other recent bastions of democracy such as Syria , Iraq , Columbia , China, etc etc etc.
A guards discretion is given by the guard at the scene at the time and who has witnesses wat happened. Only he has the knowledge to make informed decision on use of discretion or not. The points where remover by third parties who did not have this 1st hand knowledge so therefore are not in position to make informed decision. If a person wishes to appeal a points decision take it to court not ur mate in head quarters.
Shatter is wrong, so wrong. He’s trying to paint it as if Wallace is against gardai using roadside discretion – he isn’t. Wallaces point was that if a guard puts points on your licence then only a court justice should have the power necessary to remove them – and that you should not have the ability of a deceptively clean licence because you play Munster rugby or know the commissioner. Shatter should step down, he is incapable of proper conduct in his position.
And he didn’t remotely find it a HUGE coincidence that it happened to be Wallace that the Garda “briefer” chose to give an example of discretion ?? Really ? Seriously ? If this is the amount of respect that Shatter has for the intelligence of the public Tye mind boggles ! Also it didn’t occur for him to ask why is he on a database if he did “nothing wrong ” …. this raises even more questions and answers none.
J Edgar Shatter..I bet Wallace is on the water board as we speak…..This little facist used this “blunder” to put the frighteners on the rest of the Dail. I want to see the garda that gave him that info in front of a camera!
Not necessarily m bowe… A garda may stop a speeding vehicle.. the driver says he is going to the hospital in an emergency but cannot prove it on site… Maybe the garda does not believe this and issues an fcps .. later the driver sends in proof from the hospital that he indeed had an emergency and the fcps is cancelled… Nothing wrong there
Yes, Fine Gael are Fascists. Which is why they appointed a Jewish Minister for Justice.
The facts are that our Minister for Justice was caught playing fast and loose with the rules by revealing confidential information on a political opponent in order to discredit the validity of that opponents argument (names are unimportant).
Where we as citizens should be concerned is the manner in which this is now dealt with. If the Minister for Justice has broken the law by these actions and goes unpunished then we will have crossed a line that we cannot uncross. If this is the case then he should not be allowed to resign – he should be dismissed from his position and be disallowed to receive pension entitlement due to his ministerial position.
If he has not broken the law then he really may do as he wishes and we as the voting public will store this as our memory of Fine Gaels and the Ministers performance in power when they seek our votes in the next election
The minister for justice using privilleged info in this way is a threat to every citizen. The fact that the taoiseach supports the missuse and abuse of ministerial office strengthens that threat. As does the relative silience of Labour.
Unfortunately FG are holding more firmly to their fascist background than I thought was possible. I’ve never voted FF nor ever intend to, but I have to admit they were not as bad as FG.
Where’s the abuse of priviledge though and how is it a threat?
FF wouldn’t even bat an eyelid at this. They had Ministers for Justice that bugged people and politicians homes so as to gain political and business advantage.
Shatter wouldn’t even be tough or slimey enough to make a Cllr. in Fianna Fáil.
He has used ministerial privilege to obain information not available in the public domain (ie the names of individuals who have had their penalty points redacted) to attack a political opponent. Whatever about Mick Wallace’s credibility – entirely beside the point – Shatter has set a very bad precedent.
Either we should have privacy (in which case none of those names should be in the public domain) or we should have transparency (with all of those names being public knowledge). Instead what we have is neither and a situation that shares many of the hallmarks of corruption.
Brian are you really that ignorant ir are you just trying to wind everyone up ?
The use of information that he was not entitled to say in public and at that information that he has no legal reason to be aware of in the first place.
Let’s deal with the facts here folks. From the story above, he did not use or abuse any priviledge. He was given the information in the course of a briefing by the Gardai. That’s where the Gardai give him information to use in his role as the Minister of Justice. He was in his role as Minister of Justice on the TV debating and dealing with a matter of public interest with Wallace.
Personally, I don’t think Shatter should have gone as far as he did on the TV and it doesn’t take rocket science to figure out why Wallace was offered as an example.
If the information was not privileged, then why are we not, as yet, fully informed of all other individuals who have been the beneficiaries of garda discretion. Im not saying that discretion is necessarily a bad idea but without even the barest elements of transparency or oversight, it is wildly open to abuse. Minister Shatters use of such information to effectively quell debate on the subject from a political rival is only the smallest example of such possible abuses.
Brian, of course it is an abuse of privilege. He revealed infor,action given to him as minister confidentially as an illustration by gadai about how dis cf region works in practice. For entirely partisan reasons he reveals it in a selective party political way in the course of a t.v debate to score a point. He, not Wallace is the true arrogant hypocrite here. He had previously excoriated opposition T.D’s for revealing the names of politicians and others who, unlike Wallace had penalty points wiped.
Brendan – what was he doing on TV then? Being interviewed as a private citizen? No, he was being interviewed as Minister of Justice using information that he was supplied with by the Gardai on this matter. Not everything in these briefings is subject to confidentiality. Shatter didn’t accuse Wallace being guilty of anything but referred to an event that took place in a public place.
Anyway, don’t let reality get in the way of the conspiracy theory! So far today Shatter has been accused if breaching the data protection act, shadowing the opposition, spying on the opposition, went out of his way to dig the dirt … It’s getting laughable at this stage.
Just in case it missed your notice your government gave BOI and by extension this guy 4 billion.
Meanwhile the stupid gremlin Minister makes headlines of rubbish else where to distract us from the Robbery going on all around us!!
Justice the man doesn’t understand the concept!!
I think if you look at this correctly. 4 TDs created this fuss and their own actions have caused plenty of distractions for the media. Having said that, it’s clear that there is some reform happening as a result.
Now, if we could only get these four TDs to focus on the economic issues …
Well done Katie.
All this is, is another distraction, just like the whole abortion issue.
Wake up folks!
Maybe Brian YOU should look at it correctly.
BLAAH BLAAH BLAAH, BLATHER, BLATHER, BLATHER. Sorry Shatter, you are hoist on the petard of your own arrogance. Accusing Wallace of hypocrisy for not immediately remembering a non-event that happened a full year ago will not cover your abuse of your position. Resign now. I will not appeal to your sense of honour, since you have none, but resign now.
An inconvenient habit of telling the truth eh? This gets more laughable by the second. What a horrible, despicable, arrogant excuse for a man. Somebody, please, make him go away.
How can shatter be so blind to his own arrogance.. Or more to the point that he is such a #%anker..
I doubt very much that information about Wallace being warned was ‘confidential.’ It’s pretty likely that, whichever garda stopped him, was in the pub that night (after hours no doubt) telling all his mates that ‘I stopped that f**kin’ plunker Wallace today…..”
No. Wirh all the trafdic stops etc, its hihhly unlikely thay Wallace was even mentioned. Shatter and Wallace set to appear on tv and Shatter asks for dirt on Wallace and gets it. Simple as. He needs to resign.
The law says the opposite but hey why let something like the law deflect from an opportunity for a bit of Joe Duffy righteousness.
So you think Paddy it is ok for Guards to blather about their business in pubs.
As Shatter said was in a Garda briefing that he received the information. Shatter is now in the same corral as o’Dea and Wallace.
Jesus I hate these onscreen touch keyboards. Anyone know of a quality add-on keybards for a S3?
Can you quote where I said it’s ok?
It was a question Paddy.
You know what will happen here.
Every Lawyer watching the show would fallen off the chair at what Shatter said and did on Prime Time. A head will need to be found though and what is the betting that it will be the poor schmuck that did his job professionally but was ordered to report it up due to it being a T.D.. He’ll end up loosing his job . An order that Shatter will have to sign.
@jason preferably one with spell check I presume????
Some chance the same Garda that stopped Wallace was at the briefing. What odds would you get off paddy power for that ????
this indeed is the question … how did a minor incident such as this reach the minister? He needs to explain this. He brought this on himself and needs to honestly answer the questions. The three ministers who stood up for EK in the push three years are now regularly in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
Minister Shatter would be better focused on getting some justice by getting the banks analysed and charges brought those who wreaked havoc on us all.
Fine Gael – FF’s best recruitment agent at work again
The wish from Enda Kenny that ‘the Shatter matter’ is to be got rid of as quickly as possible has gone out. Kenny wants the matter go to away TODAY!. The matter has exposed that government ministers are possibly abusing their awarded government powers for means other than serving the public they were elected to represent. The fear is that further to the already mistrust that is in the government, if the public kop on large scale that ministers are using their offices for possible self-gain and party gain, even more political support will seep away. Recent polls show FG & Labour have dropped more popularity points.
Labour ministers meanwhile are more than angry about the matter. They are currently holding back their ire though in order to see that the coalition remains solid and continue (sadly) to operate. Shatter’s disclosure has led to calls for him to clarify how he obtained confidential Garda information.
On top of this is the additional criticism that he used it for a political attack. If he can do it, would others be willing to compromise their position and office to do similar now or in the future? Local elections are coming in May next year and then there is the general election after it. The questions then arises – can Fine Gael be trusted with the government office’s they currently hold? Are they going to (have they already?) further use those positions to gain political material that will just be used for their own gain in a round of trying to score points against future opposition?
Shatter it seems has unwittingly exposed what Fine Gael might be willing to go to, by any length, to win elections in the near future. Fine Gael and Labour might not be just mad at Shatter at opening his mouth in the way he did – but also that he might have exposed a possible political game hand they were going to take advantage of later, with other people!
Who else individually has possibly been singled out and investigated so that material could be used later to sway people and win votes?
When local/national elections come around it will be interesting just to see exactly what dirt will be thrown, where it supposedly comes from and who sneakily is really trying to put it out there, directly or indirectly!
Now if the Irish people actually sat down and thought how their right to privacy too could be compromised also, regardless if personal information was ‘privileged’ or not, they might indeed get very irate at the thought that ‘privacy’ was no longer a concern to a political party that might clearly be willing to win – at any cost to the public!
Fine Gael and Labour know Shatter has screwed up (big time!) – they are just downplaying the implications – this time not to score political points but to keep the public complacent and do some damage limitation.
Fine Gael have always used dirty tricks for political gain. Anyone remember the student planted by their HQ in the audience of Questions & Answers? The purpose of which was to destroy the late Brian Lenihan Sr. It backfired then it will backfire now!
It would do Shatter well to remember the old adage Pride comes before a fall.
Its time for Shatter to go.
Brian Lenihan snr lost the Presidency because he was shown to have lied about subverting the constitution. He still tried to deny it when the tape came out.
He was known to be corrupt, associated with corrupt people and was in general not fit to hold office.
The Journal must be getting afraid of this government with the level of Censorship that is now in place in the comments section or was The Journal recently bought out by an irish media mogul ?
Careful. You could get banned for saying something like that!
Shatter really has to go at this stage.
But the sheer hypocrisy of Fianna Fail in this.
They trooped into the Dail to vote confidence in Willie O’Dea after he tried to smear a political rival with (false) information he claimed came from a Garda. The only difference being that Shatter’s information may turn out to be true and he hasn’t sworn any false court evidence.
At the time of the perjury investigation, Willie O’Dea claimed that he could not remember the name of the Garda who provided the information.
Maybe Niall Collins can take time out of his whistle stop radio show tour today and call on Willie O’Dea to finally name his Garda source?
So, the gardai gave Shatter the info on Wallace. Shatter has therefore abused his position as minister for justice in pursuit of a political agenda. I’m no lover of Mick Wallace, but Alan Shatter should do the decent thing, and fall on his sword. Will he? Will he F**k!
Shatter says Wallace isn’t guilty of anything ?? He was using a mobile phone while driving !
Shouldn’t the minister for justice have a better idea of what is and isn’t against the law ?????
And isn’t it up to the courts to decide guilt ??
Well done shatter you tool….
Eh, Shatter is correct according to what you just posted. The courts decide guilt. Wallace hasn’t been found guilty by a court so he is guilty of nothing.
So we agree, shatter shouldn’t be commenting on guilt ? Excellent. He should should leave it to the courts ? Great…. What was your point again. Knob.
Fed up of hearing about these two muppets .. There are a lot more serious issues to deal with, like health care – so many sick children in hospitals needing more staff to care for them. The media should not give these FOOLS any time
This is a big issue. It relates directly to the run down economy and service we have here.
It is a showcase of Ministers pursing his own vendetta’s, the cover up crony culture, low standards in high places.
What ! He claims he has an unfortunate habit of telling the truth ! Now that’s a lie for starters !!!
Handy coincidence that Wallace’s name was used in the example for Shatter, he should go betting on the horses with Bertie with that kind of luck. If there was no ticket or summons issued how do they know about it as there is no paper trail?
I will keep my opinion about this private as I fear retribution.
Oooh, never thought of that Finglas. Scared now……….
I know what you did last Summer!
How did this degenerate into a conversation about Freddie Prinze Jr movies?
He just said he tells the truth and it gets him in to trouble, jesus help us even that was a lie, just shows Tds are on another planet and think we are all idiots
Slow news day eh……
In the sense of a standing minister for justice using privileged information, gleamed from gardai, as a method of smearing a rival? Yeah, real slow. *~*
I’m absolutly no fan of Shatter and agree with the popular opinion of many that he is a disgrace of a minister and is completely disconnected from the Gardaí. The facts of this story show that he got information handed to him and re-used it. The information in question is not exactly important nor sensitive in the grand scheme of things. Therefor I think this is a “slow news day” story. A mountain out of a molehill. Why the Journal and other news sites bother to spend so much time on Wallace, Ming and the rest of them is beyond me… maybe a focus on fixing the economy and more scrutiny of the policies being introduced would be better.
Wallace, Ming etc are besides the point in this story. The important point is that the Minister has had information deliberately provided to him by Gardai on a political rival. What about if Shatter uses his privilage as Justice Minister to gather information on political rivals to smear them in an election setting? Would it be important then? Honestly, its not the issue of Shatter and Wallace, its Shatter and what he obviously considers appropriate use of his power.
Sniff sniff…….whats that smell? ……ah its BS
Wake up people we have no democracy in this country …
Just ff and fg taking turns in power and giving jobs to their boys while they can …
Shatter is no worse than McDowell both a pair of not nice self righteous men
Wallace said “I don’t think he should resign” that sounds like a man in fear of other info shatter has on him
hypocrisy, would be if shatter as minister broke the law himself to divert attention away from the real story. history repeating itself these ministers are no better than FF/PD/Greens. Shatter has got his pension and will squirm away hoping to make it to the summer holidays. He like O’Reilly, Hogan and Howlin have got rich without solving anything other than backing each other up no matter the “hypocrisy”.
“that particular matter came up purely as an incidental” – so its just a coincidence that an example of Garda discretion happened to be about someone on the opposite end of the penalty points issue from Shatter? Does he think we were born yesterday?
Alan Shatter is an anagram of Satan Halter.
:/
The problem with the politicians in this country is that … The political system encourages the greediest and most self serving of people to rise to the highest positions. If the rewards and benefits of the offices of Taoiseach and Ministers were more in line with more ordinary people, then we might get people whose interests are in common with ordinary people serving those positions, thus serving the interests of the ordinary people rather than their own self interest
The guards Lamped Wallace at the 5 Lamps.Now he’s shattered.
Ross you tool
Thanks for going to the effort of pointing that out :-)
It’s very hard to believe Shatter. I wonder do the judges believe him in court? Seems to me Wallace is the biggest liar of all as he lied when he traded fraudulently knowing he was broke.
Garda break there own Codes of Data Protection http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=136&Lang=1 And maybe Data Protection Laws of the Land too. Some Minister for Justice.
well as i have said for the past two years big brother is watching you fine gael and labour know where you are and what your doing phil hogan and alan shatter are going to get you wheather the data protection act protects you or not YES ITS TIME FOR A GENERAL ELECTION GET THESE SCROUNGERS OUT NOW ALSO IN THE PIPE LINE TV LICENCE TO INCREASE TO 200EUROS FROM SEPTEMBER IT WILL BE KNOWN AS ARE YOU WATCHING A TV TAX heard from the horses mouth PAT RABBIT
It seems strange that a garda patrol would tell someone to stop talking on the phone and then run back to report it e.g: “Sir Sir we told Deputy Mick Wallace to put his phone away, we used our discretion, we are marvellous please tell the Minister”. It’s a farce the whole thing why would they even report it unless they had been instructed to report all incidents involving Dáil members.
have your say