Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let us deal with the more amusing part of this. Of course I do not get information on a regular or any basis about who might get warnings from the gardaí. This arose as an aside. I am assuming it arose in a normal human context in circumstances in which first the Commissioner, who, as the Deputy says, has wide powers under the Garda Síochána Act 2005, would be conscious that there is a lot of controversy around the fixed ticket issue, that I have already addressed it in several ways and that I was very determined to know everything to do with how Garda discretion is exercised. In the context of questions that may arise in this House, and this has arisen this evening, he has an obligation to ensure that I am informed of matters relevant to the accountability of the Government to the Houses of the Oireachtas. I presume that he may have concluded, just as Deputy Luke Flanagan said something about how the gardaí dealt with him, that Deputy Wallace might do so at some stage and I could be asked a question about it. The information was incidental, I presume in circumstances in which Deputy Wallace was so critical of the gardaí for exercising a discretion to ease the position of some people who had violated the Road Traffic Acts where there were humanitarian reasons for doing so. It was something of a curiosity that Deputy Wallace had benefited from the gardaí exercising their discretion. I certainly did not go hunting for the information.

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