Penalty points row - Dangerous game for Shatter

As the time-worn adage goes, people in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones. If ever he doubted that truism, Justice Minister Alan Shatter has learned how dangerous a pastime stone-throwing can be.

If he hoped the political steam had dissipated from the penalty points controversy, he now knows it is not going to go away anytime soon. Following his politically damaging claim on Prime Time that Independent Wexford Deputy Mick Wallace was the beneficiary of garda discretion over not receiving penalty points for using a mobile phone in his car, the opposition campaign recently had all the signs of flogging a dead horse.

But they must have thought they had finally nailed their bête noir yesterday when Dáil Éireann was electrified as Independent TD Mattie McGrath put a volley of queries to Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore during Leader’s Questions.

He wanted to know if the Tánaiste or Taoiseach were aware if Mr Shatter had been: stopped at a Garda checkpoint before his appointment as minister; asked to supply a breath test back in 2011; whether Mr Shatter had told gardaí he was on his way from the Dáil; whether his response had been appropriate and cordial; and if the garda had exercised his discretion in the matter.

Had there been even a suspicion of a smoking gun, Deputy McGrath was fully entitled to ask those questions in the public interest, an argument cited by Mr Shatter in the Wallace debacle. But it was more properly done yesterday as the questions were raised in the Dáil. When the Tánaiste replied that he could account for himself and for no one else, Mr McGrath emphasised he was not raising the matter as a joke, a reference to Mr Shatter’s own response when asked if he would resign over his treatment of Mr Wallace.

When it came, the reply from the minister, who was not in the House at the time, was thorough. An event had indeed occurred, but in 2009 or possibly late 2008, not 2011. There was a Garda night-time mandatory checkpoint in Pembroke Street in Dublin and a queue of motorists. When he was reached, his road tax and insurance discs were checked and he was asked to exhale into a breathalyser.

He explained: “I did so but failed to fully complete the task due to my being asthmatic. I explained this to the garda. I also explained that I was on my way home from Dáil Éireann and that I had consumed no alcohol of any nature that day. The garda consulted with another garda and I was waved on.”

Ever since his treatment of Mr Wallace, it has been open season on Mr Shatter, especially after his non-apology apology to the Wexford TD who, as it transpired, was not questioned by gardaí when a squad car drew up beside him at traffic lights opposite the Five Lamps public house in Dublin.

In terms of his work ethic, Mr Shatter has been an effective and reforming member of the executive. But his handling of a number of controversial issues has reeked of a brand of arrogance which goes hand-in-hand with power. Many are waiting in the long grass. A sense of smugness permeates this administration. It has become its hallmark. Ultimately, it could be its undoing.