Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What has happened since is that control of the Department of Justice and Equality has been taken from him. The Minister is like a learner driver - he is at the steering wheel but somebody else is in control. That is another reason that every Deputy intent on voting confidence in him tomorrow evening should be wary of doing so because he or she will be voting confidence in a Minister who is not in control of his own Department. Deputies are being asked to vote confidence in the Minister on the same day the Taoiseach appointed a committee to review his Department. The latter will be a Cabinet committee consisting of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister who, I presume, will be responsible for making the tea. It will be the "Alan Shatter oversight committee" or ASOC. It will be a case of ASOC meeting GSOC. I hope ASOC has better luck than GSOC.

The Taoiseach is going to ask all Government Deputies to come into the House tonight and tomorrow night and speak in favour of and then vote confidence in the Minister at a time when he would not involve him in the biggest issue facing his Department. Today, the Taoiseach felt it necessary to establish an oversight committee - involving the Tánaiste and one week after this matter first came to light - to review the running of the Department. Again, the Taoiseach says he has confidence in the Minister but it is those opposite who are being asked to express their confidence in him. They will be asked to put their reputations on the line tomorrow by pressing the relevant button and voting confidence in the Minister, Deputy Shatter, while the generals who lead them will probably not be here to do so. They are being asked to vote confidence in a Minister in respect of whose brief some four inquiries are under way, with regard to whose Department an oversight committee has been appointed and who abused his office by sharing information on penalty points relating to a Member of this House on live television and has since shown little remorse for doing so. Confidence indicates that one supports, that one believes in and that one approves of the someone's style of operating. Those opposite are being asked to express such confidence.

Almost one year on from the previous motion of confidence in respect of this Minister, are Government Deputies of the view that his way of operating has improved? Do they believe things are now better in the Department of Justice and Equality? The Government's amendment to the motion is quite astonishing. It is four pages of an homage to the Minister. The only thing missing from it is a nomination for the Nobel Prize for literature for his novel. Are the ladies and gentlemen opposite absolutely sure that when they vote confidence in the Minister, Deputy Shatter, and give him their political and personal endorsement, he will not drop the ball once more or let them, as parliamentarians, down again? Are they sure that a situation will not arise where, following the publication of the findings from one of the four inquiries to which I refer, the Taoiseach might lose confidence in the Minister and, as was the case with Mr. Flannery and the former Garda Commissioner, say, "There is unease in Cabinet about you, Alan"? If the latter happens, that will be it and the Minister will be gone.

The Taoiseach will not have put his name to the amended motion but all of those opposite will have done so. They will cheerfully put their names to it in the next 24 hours. However, they must ask themselves a number of questions between now and 9 p.m. tomorrow. If the Taoiseach is so confident in his Minister, why did he exclude him from dealing with the biggest issue facing the Department of Justice and Equality in 30 years? Why did he put in place an oversight committee in respect of the Department earlier today? Why did he finally give the Labour Party some involvement in respect of that Department? Why is it that nine months later we are again debating confidence in the Minister, Deputy Shatter? If those opposite can comfortably answer all of those questions, then they should go ahead and express their confidence. If they have any doubts, they should remember that it is their personal and political reputations they are putting on the line.

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