Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The main news of the past 24 hours has been the shock resignation of the former Minister for Justice and Equality and Defence, Deputy Shatter. It gives me no great pleasure to comment, adversely or otherwise, on behalf of Fianna Fáil about him. I have known him for a long time. I served under him when he was Chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and I travelled with him on a number of important visits to various countries. I have always found him to be a man of outstanding integrity. He has a wonderful brain and he is a great loss to the body politic of this country. While there has been no comment about this, one wonders what will be his political future now that he has stood down from a job he coveted for most of his political life having spent a considerable time on the back benches before he was promoted to high office. I wish him, Carol and his family well in that regard.
His resignation came long after his credibility as Minister for Justice and Equality had evaporated. We in Fianna Fáil have continuously questioned his approach to the administration of justice. Many of the concerns the party raised are still under investigation. Four investigations are ongoing in Deputy Shatter's former Department - the GSOC bugging scandal or the Cooke report, which we await; the whistleblowers dossier-Guerin report, which led to his resignation; the GSOC penalty points investigation; and the commission of investigation into Garda telephone recordings. We await the publication of the Guerin report tomorrow. The former Minister decided to resign as a result of its contents, despite the fact that he had only read three chapters, which leads me to wonder what else is in the body of the report.
Questions have arisen. We still do not know the contents of the letter from the former Garda Commissioner, Mr. Callinan, to the Department of Justice and Equality or a believable account as to why the former Minister was not informed about it. Fianna Fáil has called for the letter to be published to set out what it contains. The letter falls under section 41 of the 2005 Act requiring the Minister to be informed about it. It is extraordinary when one considers the litany of events that have taken place over the past number of weeks surrounding him and his Department. We have witnessed an incredible series of shocking failings. The breach of data protection legislation, the penalty points debacle, shocking revelations of potential bugging of the GSOC, the exposure of the former Minister's contemptuous treatment of the whistleblower, Sergeant Maurice McCabe, the sacking of the Confidential Recipient, Mr. Oliver Connolly, the forced resignation of the Commissioner and unbelievable claims of ignorance of recordings have all happened under the former Minister's watch.
Fianna Fáil has taken a constructive approach in all these matters and is committed to copperfastening the administration of justice in Ireland. I commend our party leader, Deputy Martin, who was the first to raise Sergeant McCabe's dossier, which Sergeant McCabe first brought to the attention to the authorities as far back as 2008. It was brought to the attention of the former Minister in 2012 and nothing was done until Deputy Martin produced it in the Dáil several weeks ago, following which the Taoiseach finally had to acknowledge the serious allegations contained therein which have led to the Guerin report. We have produced a detailed Bill to overhaul GSOC, bring the Commissioner under its remit, allow for internal Garda complaints and enable GSOC to access the PULSE system, which is vital to pursuing cases. An independent commission of investigation is necessary to reveal the full truth of these cases.
It gives me no great pleasure and I do not want to give the impression that I am dancing on a political grave. It is a sad loss whenever a Minister has to resign. John Drennan of the Sunday Independentearlier referred to the "moving finger". He says the finger has now moved to the Department of the Taoiseach, which has serious questions to answer because, up to the last moment, both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste steadfastly stood by their man, helped by the backbenchers in both Houses, including in the context of the issues surrounding the resignation of Martin Callinan, the early morning visits, the late night telephone calls and so on