Shatter to appeal rejection of bid to quash report

Guerin probe into Garda whistleblower’s treatment left then justice minister with no option but to resign

Former minister for justice Alan Shatter is to appeal the rejection of his High Court bid to quash parts of the Guerin report on his handling of allegations made by Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe.

Paul Sreenan, counsel for Mr Shatter, told Mr Justice Seamus Noonan yesterday he was instructed to appeal the judge’s decision last month dismissing Mr Shatter’s judicial review challenge on all grounds.

Mr Sreenan said that, given the court’s judgment, there was no basis for his side to oppose an application by Paul Anthony McDermott, on behalf of barrister Sean Guerin, requiring Mr Shatter pay the costs of the failed challenge, but he asked for a stay on that costs order pending the appeal.

Mr McDermott did not oppose such a stay.

In his proceedings against Mr Guerin, Mr Shatter challenged sections of the report, published in May 2014, after Mr Guerin’s review of the handling of the McCabe allegations.

Mr Shatter claimed Mr Guerin made a number of highly critical findings concerning the then-minister’s handling of the allegations, leaving Mr Shatter with no alternative but to resign. Mr Guerin denied any unfairness and said his report contained “observations”, not conclusions, based on documents provided for review by the Department of Justice.

The disputed aspects of the report included statements by Mr Guerin that Mr Shatter had accepted the response of then garda commissioner Martin Callanan to the McCabe complaints “without question”, and that there was no independent investigation of Sgt McCabe’s complaints.

In his judgment last month, Mr Justice Noonan said he could not see how Mr Shatter, as a member of the Government that decided to obtain and publish Mr Guerin’s report on the handling by relevant public bodies of the McCabe allegations, “can complain of the consequences”.

The “principal focus” of Mr Shatter’s case was an attempt to prevent the commission of investigation, set up by the Government in line with the Guerin report recommendations, investigating Mr Shatter’s role in relation to Sgt McCabe’s complaints, the judge said.

Mr Shatter sought to mount “a collateral attack” on the commission where a conscious decision was made not to join it, or the Government, to this case, the judge said, adding: “That cannot be permitted.” Judicial review was intended to protect citizens against unjust attack, not “to facilitate the adoption of stratagems or tactical positions designed to achieve a different purpose”, said Mr Justice Noonan.

The Guerin report involved an expression of expert opinion, was “legally sterile”, and Mr Shatter’s complaints appeared, in reality, to concern its publication and later political consequences, he observed.

Nowhere in Mr Shatter’s evidence did he appear to say the report’s conclusions were in fact wrong and, if so, why, the judge noted.