Justice minister ‘has lost his sense of responsibility’

Sinn Féin, along with a succession of opposition TDs have questioned Alan Shatter’s explanation as to when he was informed of the existence of the Garda tapes.

Pádraig MacLochlainn, Sinn Féin’s justice spokes- person, said Mr Shatter had lost his sense of responsibility to both his office and the Irish people and should resign.

“Each of these scandals has demonstrated an unhealthily close relationship between the Minister for Justice and Equality and the former Garda commissioner, Martin Callinan, in which the minister lost his objectivity and sense of responsibility to the Irish people and his office,” he said.

He also questioned the credibility of Mr Shatter’s assertion that he was only informed of the tapes on Monday when the Garda commissioner discussed the issue with the attorney general — a Cabinet colleague — last November.

Independent TD Shane Ross said there wasn’t “a sinner” outside of the Government who believed Mr Shatter’s explanation of events which “defied credibility”.

“A letter came out into the public arena stating that the Minister for Justice and Equality or the department knew about this on May 10. Why this whole explanation is incredible is that nobody on God’s earth can believe that a letter of this importance arrived from an officer of the State... on a matter of apparently considerable urgency and the minister was not told,” he said.

Mr Ross said he believed Mr Shatter when he stated that he did not see the letter until Monday, but asked if anybody had been informed of the contents before then.

Fellow independent TD Richard Boyd Barrett also queried the credibility of Mr Shatter’s explanation.

“The minister now has this situation where he expects us to believe, with all of this happening, with all the controversy surrounding his relationship with the former commissioner, Mr Callinan, that he receives a letter marked ‘urgent’ from that same commissioner and he does not open it.”

He added: “Either the minister is not telling the truth or it indicates a level of incompetence that is staggering.”