Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

No one in Sinn Féin takes any personal pleasure in the resignation of Deputy Alan Shatter. He has a spouse, a family and a wider family upset by this development. Tá nuacht tagtha chun cinn le déanaí a chuireann níos mó brú ar an Teachta Shatter. Mar is eol don Taoiseach, tá sé i mbéal an phobail le tamall fada anois. Tá sé soiléir nach bhfuil deireadh le sin fós.

The resignation comes as we await the outcome of separate investigations into the bugging controversy at GSOC and claims of Garda malpractice by whistleblowers and it follows a period in which Deputy Alan Shatter's judgment on a range of serious policing and justice issues has undermined public confidence but he was not in it on his own. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste supported him and resisted strongly and rubbished sensible suggestions from the Sinn Féin spokesperson on justice, Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, to deal with these matters independently of the Minister in a transparent and appropriate way. Labour and Fine Gael voted confidence in the Minister. It was not just the Minister who has presided over the recent series of controversies, although he was a central actor and the author of a litany of mistakes. He defamed the two Garda whistleblowers and misled the Dáil. The Taoiseach set out, in an inappropriate way, the need for the ombudsman to go to the Minister when that was not the case. He allowed false statements to stand and corrected them only when it was politically expedient to do so. He and the Taoiseach actively sought to minimise the concerns of GSOC that its offices were being bugged. Does the Taoiseach expect other resignations and did he seek the Minister's resignation?

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