A damning report showing a failure by the Department of Justice to adequately deal with allegations of malpractice, corruption and falsification of records within the gardaí forced the sudden resignation of Alan Shatter as minister for justice.
The 300-page report by senior counsel, Sean Guerin, to be published tomorrow, will recommend a wide scale statutory inquiry into the allegations first presented by garda whistleblower, Sergeant Maurice McCabe, in 2012.
The report was ordered in February following claims that a dossier of files outlining allegations of malpractice in the force was in the possession of the Department of Justice for two years without being dealt with.
Enda Kenny established the inquiry after being presented with the dossier by the Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin.
Announcing the minister’s resignation yesterday, Mr Kenny said the Guerin report is “hard hitting” and points to an “inadequate response” by the minister “under his statutory function and responsibilities for independent investigation and analysis of these matters”.
“It is his feeling as a minister that this finding of the senior counsel of inadequate use of his statutory responsibilities requires him to tender his resignation.”
Mr Shatter, who has been rocked by a series of controversies in recent months, was not present when Mr Kenny made the announcement to the Dáil at 4.30pm yesterday.
In his letter of resignation to the Taoiseach, he said he had not read the full report but agreed with its conclusions.
Mr Shatter said that it was appropriate that a statutory inquiry would be established.
But he said he “would not be honest” if he did not record his concerns and reservations” that he was not interviewed by Mr Guerin as part of his inquiry.
Senior Labour ministers, who stood four square behind Mr Shatter through a range of scandals, didn’t know of his decision to step down until it was announced to the House.
A spate of scandals surrounding justice and policing issues in recent months has already resulted in garda commissioner, Martin Callinan, and garda confidential recipient, Oliver Connolly, resigning.
It has also resulted in the establishment of the Fennelly inquiry into the taping of phone calls at garda stations, the Cooke inquiry into allegations of bugging at GSOC, and a number of inquiries into the cancellation of penalty points by senior members of the force.
Mr Shatter’s position has been on the line ever since the dossier was handed to the Taoiseach.
The most serious of the cases involved the murder in Limerick in 2007 of Silvia Roche Kelly, whose killer was out on bail for another serious assault.
One element of the case was investigated by GSOC which recommended disciplinary action against two officers. The Garda commissioner declined to discipline the officers.
Mr Martin said last night that Mr Shatter’s handling of this and other matters “clearly placed him under a cloud and fundamentally undermined the administration of justice”.
The Government will announce a new minister for justice today. Speculation is focused on Children’s Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, Agriculture Minister, Simon Coveney, Transport Minister Leo Varadkar, and Fine Gael party chairman Charlie Flanagan.
---------------------
UPDATE:
---------------------
UPDATE:
The Government is setting up a full-scale state inquiry into alleged Garda corruption after the Justice Minister dramatically resigned over his role in the affair.
Alan Shatter, a veteran within the senior coalition partner Fine Gael, has stood down just weeks after the Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan stunned the country with his resignation amid a storm of controversies involving his force.
Mr Shatter, who also serves as Defence Minister, told Taoiseach Enda Kenny he was offering to stand down after reading a Government-ordered report into the handling of whistleblower allegations of widespread Garda wrongdoing and malpractice.
A dossier by serving Sergeant Maurice McCabe has rocked the force.
In a bid to calm growing tensions over a series of scandals, the government asked a senior criminal barrister to examine ten sample cases – including alleged murder, abduction and assault – which Sgt McCabe claims were not properly investigated.
The 300-page report is to be published on Friday but was handed to both Mr Kenny and Mr Shatter last night.
Announcing the resignation in the Dáil, Mr Kenny said the report found Mr Shatter to be “inadequate” in his obligation to be independent in his investigation of the whistleblower allegations.
“The Minister having read the report and considered its implications has sent me his resignation which I have accepted with regret,” he said.
Mr Kenny said he did not demand Mr Shatter’s resignation and added that he was not expecting anyone else to stand down over the controversy.
The Government will now set up a full statutory inquiry – known as a Commission of Investigation – into the corruption allegations.
In a resignation letter, Mr Shatter said he had reservations about the report but was offering to stand aside in the interests of his party and the junior coalition partner Labour Party ahead of upcoming elections.
“I am anxious that any controversy that may arise on publication of the report does not distract from the important work of the Government or create any difficulties for the Fine Gael or Labour parties in the period leading in the European and local government elections,” he wrote.
“It is my judgement that the only way in which such controversy can be avoided is by my offering you my resignation.”
However, Mr Shatter said he had only read three chapters of the report and agreed there should be a statutory inquiry.
It is the latest in a wave of top-level investigations into alleged Garda wrongdoing.
Six weeks ago, then Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan shocked even his closest colleagues when he resigned over the uncovering of a secret system recording telephone calls at police stations for decades.
A Supreme Court judge is heading up a State inquiry into the impact of the taped conversations – specifically on the investigation into the murder of French film producer Sophie Toscan du Plantier.
A legal action by former English journalist Ian Bailey for wrongful arrest in the investigation in west Cork exposed the recording system.
A retired High Court judge is leading another independent investigation into the alleged bugging of the Dublin headquarters of the force’s official watchdog, the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission.
Mr Shatter had previously shrugged off allegations of an unhealthily close relationship with Mr Callinan.
Cabinet colleagues stood by him yesterday when it was revealed that he had breached data protection laws in revealing on live television last year that a political opponent, Mick Wallace, had been seen by police using his mobile phone while driving, although he was not prosecuted.
Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Justice and Equality, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn has said that his resignation was "long overdue" and he stated that the lessons of the Minister’s tenure must be learned by the Government.
Deputy Mac Lochlainn said: "Our party has twice voted no confidence in Minister Alan Shatter in Dáil votes in the last year and we believe that his resignation is long overdue.
"However Minister Shatter's resignation is only the start of what needs to be done. The crisis in public confidence in the administration of justice must be urgently addressed by this Government and by the incoming Minister.
"We need to see the implementation of a new independent policing authority accountable to an independent policing board, the Oireachtas and to local Joint Policing Committees.
"Further, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission needs to be given more powers to effectively carry out their important work.
"And we need a new Minister that demonstrates humility and listens to the opinions and expertise of all stakeholders."
-------------------
UPDATE:
-------------------
UPDATE:
Allegations of wrongdoing, malpractice and corruption in the Gardaí have claimed a third major scalp with Alan Shatter’s dramatic departure.
Ultimately his refusal to act on the word of a whistleblower and his reluctance to accept responsibility for failings in the Gardaí and the department forced him out.
Mr Shatter had already fought for his political survival amid a myriad of controversies over the last 18 months – the penalty points affair, claims of negligent policing, bugging of the Garda Ombudsman and taped phone calls in Garda stations.
An inadequate response to whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe’s concerns brought about his downfall.
Mr Shatter followed former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and the former confidential recipient in the Garda, lawyer Oliver Connolly, on to the casualty list.
Their demise can be traced to January 2012 when Mr Shatter first received allegations of “gross dereliction of duty on a massive scale” in the Garda.
Within a fortnight Mr Connolly was told the claims have been dealt with.
He later resigned after it emerged he warned a whistleblower he would be finished if he continued to pursue the minister over corruption and wrongdoing in the force.
Sgt McCabe had raised concerns in 2008 and 2009 about neglect of duty by officers in Bailieboro Garda station, Co Cavan.
The most serious involved the vicious assault of taxi driver Mary Lynch in April 2007. Jerry McGrath, from Dundrum, Co Tipperary, who went on to murder, was charged with a minor offence and released on bail.
Six months later he attempted to abduct a child in Tipperary and was again released on bail after a court was not told of the earlier offence.
Five weeks later he had killed Sylvia Roche Kelly in a hotel in Limerick.
The question of how the Garda handled McGrath, right back to the time of Ms Lynch’s assault, is being investigated by the Garda Ombudsman.
Sgt McCabe went on to raise concerns about the wiping of penalty points by senior officers with the minister’s office in September 2012.
The Department of Justice’s response was to tell him to report the matter to senior Gardaí.
In the midst of those allegations Mr Callinan brought about his own downfall with a withering assessment of Sgt McCabe and now retired Garda John Wilson, both of whom spent months trying to expose the penalty points scandal.
During a Oireachtas hearing into abuse of the penalty points system in the force, the country’s top police officer said only two officers out of 13,000 were making “extraordinary, serious allegations”.
“Frankly I think it is quite disgusting, on a personal level I think it is quite disgusting,” Mr Callinan said at the time.
Again the Ombudsman was eventually called in to inspect the claims.
While these scandals were brewing the Garda Ombudsman’s own staff were holding meetings in a coffee shop amid fears they had been bugged and calling in government level counter-surveillance experts to sweep its offices.
Mr Shatter went on a public collision course with the watchdog over that affair across several weeks at the end of last year.
And amongst all the controversies there is the case of Ian Bailey, who is suing the state over his treatment by Gardaí investigating the death of French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier in west Cork in 1996.
He lawsuit has helped expose the secret recording of phone calls in and out of more than 20 Garda stations nationwide.
Another black mark on the minister’s tenure.
Taioseach Enda Kenny, who considered Mr Shatter an ally in the Fine Gael ranks, has stood by his former minister through thick and thin.
As recently as yesterday his spokesmen were giving assurances that he still had his confidence.
Mr Shatter has been widely commended for his reform agenda in the department with colleagues remarking on his work ethic.
Reacting to his resignation, Clare Daly, an Independent TD who helped expose the whistleblower’s complaints, said: “It’s not what time you get out of bed at, it’s what you do with that time.”
(Source: The Irish Examiner).
No comments:
Post a Comment