Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A half-hearted, conditional apology does not wash away that fundamental error of judgement and the irreparable loss of ministerial integrity it entails.

The Minister has poisoned the relationship between himself and the Garda Commissioner due to that misjudgement. An effective working connection between these two positions is one of the most important in the State. Confidential briefings containing highly sensitive information are a vital part of the job but the Minister has now lost that trust. He bought a quick jibe at Mick Wallace at the price of fatally compromising his connection with the Garda Commissioner. The Commissioner cannot say it but that bridge is another one that the Minister has burnt. His capacity to carry out his duties as Minister took another deadly knock with that short-sighted attack.

I wish to refer to the Minister's blatant acts of hypocrisy and his double standards. The Minister himself was a keen advocate of high standards when he sat on these benches. When Bobby Molloy inappropriately misused his position as a Minister of State in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in 2002, Deputy Shatter emphatically stated that such a monumental error of judgement might have been forgivable had it been made by a political novice serving a first term. In demanding the resignation of Deputy Willie O'Dea in 2010, he stated incorrectly that he willingly and publicly discussed for his own electoral gain confidential information furnished to him by a member of the Garda Síochána and that such conduct was unacceptable by any Minister in any Government.

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