Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If I may continue, today's report in the Irish Independent states the Minister, "Said nothing about being asthmatic, preventing him from completing the test" which he was asked to do. It also indicates that Deputy Shatter, "Intimated to the garda that it was unconstitutional for them to stop him as he was coming from the Dáil and said: 'Check your law book'." The Irish Independent also claims he, "Appeared not to make a sufficient effort to complete the breath test", and "Drove off without being waved on by the officer" who had stopped him. All of those questions need a clear response from the Minister here tonight. I do not know the veracity or otherwise of them. All I can do is put them to the Minister because they are out there. They are questions which the public, having read those articles today, will have. They are questions to which it is crucial he has a clear answer and can refute.

It also has been found out that there is now no report with the Garda on that particular incident. This is in stark contrast to the report the Minister was able to give on Deputy Wallace's interaction with the gardaí, where he was not stopped and where the gardaí did not even get out of the car. It was merely a conversation which took place and their discretion was used, and yet a report on that incident was able to make its way up through the Garda ranks right to the Garda Commissioner and into the Minister's hands, and then was used by Deputy Shatter in a political debate with Deputy Wallace. That is in stark contrast to what we have before us here, where we can get no official evidence of something which would seem to have been a much more significant event and where it would seem that Deputy Shatter had informed the gardaí on the night that he was coming from the Dáil. As someone who has more legal experience than any other person in this Chamber, Deputy Shatter, more than anyone, would know the implications of stating that he was on his way back from the Dáil given the long-standing and archaic privilege that was put in place to exempt Dáil Deputies at the foundation of the State from arrest on their way to or from Dáil Éireann.

It is crucial tonight that the Minister addresses those issues and gives clear answers to them. Unfortunately, it may - I believe it will - not be enough in order for people to have confidence in him. The adage in law that justice must be done but also must be seen to be done is all important.

Likewise, no doubt the Minister has ability.

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