Shatter’s long overdue apology may have done enough to save his skin

IF the justice minister had given a more credible and more contrite explanation to the Dáil yesterday morning on his handling of information surrounding telephone recordings in Garda stations, then he might have retrieved some of his lost political capital.

But the explanation he delivered about when, how, and why he found out about the practice failed utterly — in both content and tone — to convince that, as he put it “no reasonable person can claim inaction on my part”.

The big political question surrounding revelations that calls in and out of Garda stations were recorded is when did Mr Shatter find out? Was he told by his officials? If so, why didn’t he tell us, and if not what was going on in his department?