Shatter may not do humble, but he has what it takes to survive bugging affair

DO you remember Smiley’s People? It’s one of the great classic TV series, based on the novels of John LeCarre and starring Alec Guinness as the deep-thinking, slow moving British intelligence officer.

It’s beautifully written and acted, and incredibly tortuous and slow. Most of the time, trying to figure out what’s going on, I feel like Dougal, in that Father Ted scene where he suddenly says, “I’m hugely confused, Ted.”

Well, that’s exactly how I feel about the Alan Shatter affair. Or should I call it the “Alan Shatter GSOC bugging whistle-blowing garda behaviour secret dossiers confidential recipient affair.”

In all the years I’ve been involved in politics or watching it from the sidelines I’ve never come across such a tangled web. A public enquiry to sort this out would last longer than the Beef Tribunal.

But through all the murk, a couple of things are becoming clear. Well, sort of anyway. At a political level, there is as yet no sign that this entire affair is damaging the government. There’s no doubt it’s exasperating them. Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste are spending all their time trying to figure out how to deal with the spate of revelations that are constantly tumbling out.

That’s harder because (a) there seems to be no end to the number of revelations, and (b) there’s no real shape to them. There is an overwhelming level of media interest in every twist and turn of the saga, and constant headlines about the growing list of questions that need to be answered.

But at the same time, two opinion polls published at the weekend would appear to suggest that the spate of allegations has had little impact on public opinion. There may be all sorts of reasons for that — it’s possible that everyone is just as confused as I am, or it may be that everyone is just waiting for a smoking gun to appear.

One way or the other, the polls would appear to suggest that the people aren’t taking all the accusations against the Minister for Justice as seriously as the media are.

The second point to be made about the Minister for Justice is that, despite all the pressure, it’s noticeable that nobody has called for his resignation. Every other phrase imaginable is in constant use — he’s under pressure, he has questions to answer, he needs to apologise. Nobody is saying that he needs to go. Nobody in the opposition has tabled a motion of no confidence.

That’s intriguing, isn’t it? It used to be an axiom of politics that if a minister couldn’t explain his way out of a difficulty within a week he or she was in serious trouble. Alan Shatter has been in the mire for months, it seems, and still he’s battling on.

I should probably declare an interest here. I have a keen interest in the Charities Regulatory Authority that will shortly be appointed by the Minister for Justice, and have applied to become a member of it. Whoever is on it, I believe it is vital that he sets up that body without delay, and that he gives it a clear mandate to do a critical job.

But he is also the author of a number of other really important and far-reaching reforms. His Child and Family Relationships Bill will address serious and long-standing deficiencies in the law. His planned reform of the Children’s Court is absolutely vital. His overall reform of the legal system, which has already made him lots of enemies, is long overdue.

Some people may not like Alan Shatter, but his track record already exceeds most of his predecessors. His commitment to, and passion for, reform, has made him one of those unique politicians. People may not find him warm and cuddly, but even his detractors admire him. And he has a reputation for rigorous honesty. Pat Rabbitte made the point last week that Shatter is the least likely minister to have set out to mislead the Dáil deliberately.

So what’s gone wrong? There does seem to be a strong sense that he has lost sight to some degree of the necessary distance that must exist between a Minister for Justice and the Garda force. Every Minister for Justice must see his or her first responsibility as the protection of public confidence in the administration of justice. The age-old principles of justice delayed being justice denied, and justice always being seen to be done, need to be engraved on the desk of any Minister for Justice.

So a minister who is seen as being too close to any branch of the system – whether he or she is too cosy with the judiciary or the legal profession or the gardaí – is always going to find himself or herself in trouble.

This is not a trap one would have expected Shatter to fall into. When he was in opposition he ran a strong and important campaign into the deaths of children in the care system. It was called “Let in the Light”, and on several occasions as part of that campaign he released documentation that the authorities of the day would have preferred to remain hidden.

In short, he was a whistle-blower, and encouraged others to come forward as well. That was only a couple of years ago, and it’s hard to understand how someone who was so forthright about government failure back then is apparently so hard on whistle-blowers now.

ALAN SHATTER, it’s fair to say, doesn’t do humble. We’re unlikely to see him grovel in front of his critics any time soon. But there is no doubt that he owes an apology to Maurice McCabe. Whatever the technicalities, he has demonstrated too clearly that he is far too willing to dismiss someone who has a genuine and fundamentally important story to tell, and far too ready to align himself with those in the gardaí, especially its leader, who would rather brand a whistle-blower as disgusting than ever question the possibility that there might be something to worry about in the ranks of the force.

Even if Shatter doesn’t do humble, he owes it to the administration of justice to learn the lessons from this episode. A strong garda force needs oversight – that’s a democratic principle. The independent body charged with that oversight can’t do its job if it is hamstrung at every turn.

Among the urgent reforms that have now been highlighted are the fact that GSOC must be able to receive and investigate complaints from within the force They must have unfettered access to the PULSE system. No member of the Garda, including the commissioner, must be outside their remit.

But if a real culture of accountability is to emerge from this, we also need a “Garda Authority”, voted into existence by the Oireachtas and reporting independently to the Oireachtas. The Minister for Justice needs to concentrate on policy, and never be sucked into operational relationships.

Alan Shatter can survive all this, and go on to build a reputation as an outstandingly reforming minister. He may be sadder and wiser as a result of it all, but I’m not sure that will do him any harm at all.