Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

He has brought to his Ministry a selective approach to justice, as evidenced through his pointed outrage at the possible sullying of the reputations of some while not giving a damn about the reputations of others.

In addition to his recently demonstrated disregard for the constitutional right to privacy, the standards set out in the standards in public office legislation and the protection of personal data as set out in the data protection legislation, the penalty points controversy has provided us with a sorry example of his conduct in office. He failed to exercise any of the legislative options open to him, those being, to refer the controversy to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission's office or to appoint a special independent inquiry. He refused to explain to the House why he instead chose an internal Garda review.

The Minister also failed to adhere to the two basic standards of constitutional fairness. Setting up his internal review offended two constitutional principles - the rule against bias, by having senior gardaí investigate themselves, and the rule to hear the other side, by conducting a six-month review without interviewing the whistleblowers or giving them an opportunity to put their case.

The Minister refused to disclose to the House the internal review's terms of reference when asked to do so. He refused to commit publicly to implementing the 12 fundamental changes on Garda cancellation policies and practices as recommended in the Garda professional standards unit's report. Instead, he only committed to seven select principles from the report in his press statement.

The Minister has shown a lack of concern at the probable unlawfulness of Garda discretion in cancelling fixed charge notices. He refused to seek an opinion from independent senior counsel or even the Attorney General's office on the legality of the 2005 cancellation policy and the Garda's implementation of same. In a cynical and underhanded manner, the Minister and the two reports that he commissioned failed to reference important legislation when discussing the legality of Garda discretion in this context, namely, section 35 of the Road Traffic Act 2010. It is on the Statue Book, yet the Minister has yet to commence it. As such, it is not in operation. It replaces the word "shall" in the 1961 Act with "may" to permit the use of discretion, indicating an awareness on the part of the State that Garda discretion in terms of the PULSE system is unlawful.

I did not ask for an apology. I am used to having muck thrown at me. I did not ask the Minister to resign. I am not interested in picking him out as I believe the Government as a unit is culpable because it has not prioritised the best interests of the ordinary people of this country but rather the interests of the EU, the ECB and the financial markets.

Of course the Minister will continue in office and have the backing of his colleagues but a major problem remains, namely, whether he will regain the confidence of the public, whether people believe his side of the story, if he can bring rank and file gardaí with him-----

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