Every breath he takes

COMMENT

 

 

A FORMER senior army officer recently told me a story that I find very relevant to the latest controversies surrounding our very arrogant Minister for Justice Alan Shatter. My army informant told me a number of years ago he attended some high-powered State function, which was also attended by a senior garda officer. He said he was amazed at how popular the garda officer appeared to be at the function.  “Very few of the people present paid much attention to me, their whole attention was fixed on my counterpart in the Garda Síochána, with government ministers, Dáil deputies and various celebrities queuing up to shake his hand and wish him well.” When things quietened down a bit, the army officer asked the senior garda how it was that he – the garda – appeared to be known by all the top people present, while the soldier found himself standing on his own for much of the time. “Well, it is like this,” said the garda officer, “they know that I know too much about them”.

I recall that story in the wake of Alan Shatter telling us it was the Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan who told him about Independent TD Mick Wallace being caught using his mobile phone, while driving his car. Now there’s some of that stuff that I can somehow understand but there’s a lot of it I dislike.  I can understand how a garda commissioner in an informal chat with a Minister for Justice might pass on little tidbits of gossip about people. But I don’t like it one bit. Especially if the gossip is about a political opponent. It makes a political messenger boy out of the commissioner who is supposed to be above all that kind of stuff. He certainly should not pass on private information to anybody, including the

Minister for Justice, about anybody obtained by gardaí in the course of their duty. But that’s how we do things in Ireland.
It was more than wrong. It was disgraceful for the Minister for Justice to reveal private information about someone, obtained in the manner in which it was obtained. The disclosure about Mick Wallace and his mobile phone had nothing to do with the penalty points debate but was used by Shatter in a bid to destroy Mick Wallace’s reputation. The fact that a garda had used his discretion in not issuing penalty points to Wallace was irrelevant to the whole debate.
Shatter did issue a half-hearted apology later to Mick Wallace but it was not good enough.

However, the thing that annoys me more than anything else about this whole affair is how other members of the Government, including Labour ministers, are so enthusiastic about supporting their Cabinet colleague, not only in relation to the Mick Wallace incident but also arising out of the breathalyser issue.

Just imagine if Fianna Fáil were in power and either John O’Donoghue, Willie O’Dea or Timmy Dooley were Minister for Justice.  Fine Gael and Labour would go to town on the issue. They would be insisting on the minister’s head on a plate, just as Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are doing now. The Dáil would be suspended on several occasions as Fine Gael and Labour deputies attempted to raise the matter on the order of business. I could see Fine Gael or Labour deputies thrown out of the House as the Ceann Comhairle tried to restore order. They would not let up on their efforts to have the minister sacked or forced to resign.
But now they accuse Fianna Fáil of blowing this matter up out of all proportion. I can see how annoyed former Labour junior minister Róisín Shortall must feel. It’s a pity she didn’t get the same support from her former leader Eamon Gilmore that he is able to give Alan Shatter.

I am writing this piece in advance of the Fianna Fáil motion of no confidence in the Minister for Justice but I can guess how it will turn out. There will probably be uproar and possibly some members will be suspended. The Government will really defeat any motion the Opposition propose because they have such a large overall majority.

But I am told, privately, a lot of Fine Gael and Labour TDs are really fed up of all the embarrassments caused to the Government by the antics of ministers like Shatter, Phil Hogan and James Reilly. They would much prefer if those ministers went away quietly rather than allowing themselves to be used as pawns by Fianna Fáil in that party’s bid to regain popularity.

But that’s the way things are played out in Dáil Éireann.  Much of the anger displayed by the Opposition will be feigned, while Government deputies will heckle the speeches from the opposite side. It’s all play-acting to the gallery. All pretending to be serious. The Opposition will basically be using Shatter to embarrass the Government, while the Government will be hoping this issue goes away as soon as possible. The Government doesn’t really need enemies while it has gaff-prone people like Alan Shatter, Phil Hogan and James Reilly in the Cabinet.

But these are serious matters. Nobody is saying Alan Shatter was drunk when he avoided taking a breathalyser test. We have to accept he was innocent of that charge because there is no evidence to the contrary.
However, I wonder if an ordinary member of the public would have got off so lightly. Why was there not a blood or urine sample taken? But I presume questions like those will be asked and answered during the two-day Dáil debate.