Going right to the end - Shatter exits with ironic handshake

Having taken the moral high ground by endorsing coalition legislation scrapping severance payments for ex-ministers, there is a bitter twist of irony about former minister Alan Shatter’s compromise of accepting the €70,000 payment and then giving the money away to the Jack and Jill charity.

Effectively, by taking the golden handshake, as is his entitlement, he has given the two fingers to the Fine Gael-Labour government. Facing demands from both Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore, to do the “right” and the “honourable” thing, he had been confidently expected not to take the money.

Giving it to a good cause was characteristic of a man noted for his cleverness. However, it also reflects acertain lack of judgement reminiscent of his failure to listen to what the whistleblowers were saying about problems within the gardaí. The character flaw of always being right would ultimately outweigh his intellectual qualities and prove politically fatal.