Sour smell of scandal lingers as Shatter squirms free of chopping block

The smell that these Garda scandals have been giving off has turned sour. Alan Shatter and Enda Kenny must answer all the tough questions more than satisfactorily, writes Michael Clifford

THERE, that wasn’t too hard now, was it? The Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, stood up in the Dáil yesterday at 4.20pm and apologised for blackguarding the two garda whistleblowers. It would be difficult to believe that he meant a word of it, but issuing empty platitudes was a small price to pay for holding onto his job. Now that he’s got over that little personal crisis, we can all turn to what is emerging as a really serious question.

Did Enda Kenny fire the Garda commissioner in order to save Shatter’s bacon? These controversies which have been raging for over two months are finding a rhythm. Some new nugget of information comes to light, sending everybody into a tizzie. Then Shatter comes into one of the forums of the Oireachtas and patiently explains to the mere mortals how they’ve all got it wrong and how he has acted with probity and efficiency at every turn.