Shatter stands over decision to reveal incident

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has robustly stood over his decision to publicly reveal Independent TD Mick Wallace escaped penalty points for using a mobile phone while driving.

The Minister said he revealed the information because the Wexford TD was a public figure who had engaged in political hypocrisy.

In a long doorstep interview this afternoon, the Minister defended the comments he made on PrimeTime last Thursday night and rejected allegations he improperly used confidential Garda information to denigrate the reputation of a political opponent.

Mr Shatter said the information supplied to him by gardaí on Mr Wallace was not of private or confidential nature but was relayed to him as part of a general briefing by gardaí on the situation regarding the cancellation of penalty points.

He based his defence on the status of Mr Wallace, who he said was “a person in public life” who had made allegations in relation to penalty points being quashed. He contended that as Minister he disclosed the information on Mr Wallace’s own incident as part of his responsibility to give full transparency on the issue.

He also denied muddying the water by directly comparing Mr Wallace’s situation - where he was let off with, as the Minister said, “a minor ticking off” - and the situation where people have actively sought to have penalty points quashed after they had been issued. He asserted the discretion in both instances was exactly the same.

He accused Mr Wallace of political hypocrisy.

When he was asked was he himself engaged in political hypocrisy, he replied: “I am telling you the truth. There is no difference between the gardaí exercising discretion and not issuing a fixed ticket charge and to an individual being the recipient of such a charge when they have been spotted by some van with a camera and then explaining why it did not apply to them.”

The Minister was speaking at the National Convention Centre this afternoon at the conclusion of a ceremony for new Irish citizens. It came as the controversy over his remarks continued to escalate.

Mr Wallace has said he will make a complaint to the ethics body, the Standards in Public Office (Sipo), while Fianna Fáil is considering tabling a motion of no confidence. A number of Labour TDs, including Kevin Humphries, have also expressed strong criticism of Mr Shatter’s comments.

Mr Shatter said the reason he had brought up the incident from May of last year was that Mr Wallace had said on the Prime Time programme no discretion should be given for those who has been levied penalty points.

“As a Minister I have an inconvenient habit of telling the truth about issues. It occasionally gets me into trouble.

“Where I think there is a public interest, to confront an issue where there is a reform needed, where people are making cases that deserve questioning.

“The only reason I raised the issue and I would not have otherwise raised it was Deputy Wallace is a public personality.

“He was making a presentation that the Garda should never exercise discretion in favour of everybody. I felt in the context of the general transparency that he and his colleagues had been demanding in the very full briefing I received... I felt it was appropriate to point out to Deputy Wallace that he had benefitted from that discretion.”

Mr Shatter said it was regrettable Mr Wallace earlier said he could not recall the incident. “I’m glad he remembered it this morning and told the truth about it this morning.”

The Minister denied gathering information on other political opponents.

“I have been listening to some of the wild and wonderful suggestions that I as Minister have been spying on my political opponents. Can I say that that is errant nonsense... I have no interest in doing so.”

Mr Shatter maintained that in no circumstances would he “deliberately seek information from any member of the force to in any way target any Dail deputy”.

He also insisted it was his duty to let the public know about the incident involving Mr Wallace. “Under the duty that I was under to ensure maximum transparency in these issues, had I not referred to that matter I could have been accused of covering up the fact that the discretion was exercised in favour of Deputy Wallace,” he argued.

He also said that Mr Wallace had not gone to Sipo when his colleagues on the independent benches had named private individuals using the protection of Dail privilege.