Shatter misused Garda data against me, says Wallace
In the wake of the penalty points controversy, Mr Shatter claimed that Mr Wallace escaped a motoring fine last year because of “discretionary consideration afforded to him by An Garda Síochána”.
The Wexford TD has disputed Mr Shatter’s claim that a garda let him off with a warning about using his mobile phone while driving last year, when they both appeared on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Thursday. He added that he would be making a complaint against the minister for allegedly misusing private information against him.
Mr Shatter accused Mr Wallace of insisting gardaí should not exercise discretionary powers while, at the same time, hiding the fact he had benefited from such discretion. He also accused him of using confidential data to denigrate the gardaí.
“By making a pretence, for political purposes, that he is of the view that gardaí should not use their discretionary powers in ease of a member of the general public while concealing the fact that garda discretion had been exercised in relation to himself, Deputy Wallace was last night effectively asserting that discretionary consideration afforded to him by An Garda Síochána should not be extended to others,” said Mr Shatter.
“I do not believe such an approach to be either acceptable or credible.”
Mr Wallace said he will ask the Data Protection Commissioner to investigate any possible breach of the Data Protection legislation. Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins said Mr Shatter was “apparently relying on private information provided to him by the gardaí”.
He said “privileged information” should be treated with respect and claimed the incident raised questions about Mr Shatter’s judgement. “Fianna Fáil holds no brief for Mick Wallace, but the issues raised by Shatter’s intervention are bigger and more important than party politics or the hypocrisy of the Dáil Technical Group. They include the security of citizens’ private information, the right to due process and the use of private details for political purposes.”
Mr Collins said the minister had “betrayed the confidence of the gardaí to score a political point”.
