Alan Shatter: I dealt with issues in truthful way

Alan Shatter, the former justice minister, has welcomed the Cooke report on allegations of covert surveillance at the offices of the Garda Ombudsman.

Mr Shatter came under strong criticism following his initial Dáil response in February to the publication of GSOC bugging allegations in The Sunday Times.

But in a statement last night, the Dublin South TD said he had dealt with the issues “in a straightforward, truthful, and comprehensive way”.

He detailed how he responded to the allegations in the Dáil on February 11 and 18, and at the Oireachtas petitions committee on February 19. He did this “on the basis of the information available to me as received by GSOC”, he said, “including their technical reports and a technical peer review of those reports commissioned by the Department of Justice.”

Mr Shatter reported to the House “GSOC’s own conclusions that there was no definitive evidence of unauthorised technical or electronic surveillance”, he said last night.

Mr Shatter was accused at the time of attempting to play down the issue when he said there was “no evidence” of surveillance found during the “routine sweep of a nature which had occurred previously”. He also told the Dáil that the GSOC review was prompted by “no specific concern”.

This was contradicted the following day by the three members of the commission. Ombudsman Simon O’Brien said he suspected they “may have been under some form of surveillance”. He said he “fully informed the minister of everything that happened” in a meeting before Mr Shatter made his statement to the Dáil.

In his report published late on Tuesday night, John Cooke, a retired judge, concluded that it was “impossible” to “categorically rule out” the possibility that surveillance took place.

But he said the available evidence “does not support the proposition that the actual surveillance of the kind asserted in The Sunday Times article took place and much less that it was carried out by members of the Garda Síochána”.

Mr Shatter said it was important that Mr Cooke “fully engaged with GSOC” and “applied fair procedures in the conduct of his inquiry”.

He said the retired judge “ensured, insofar as is possible, that all information of relevance was available to him with regard to conclusions reached”.

On his presentations of the issue in the Oireachtas, he said: “I dealt with these matters in a straightforward, truthful, and comprehensive way.”

He pointed out that he also detailed the “statutory obligation of GSOC to inform the minister” of its investigation into bugging.

“I welcome the conclusions of Judge Cooke on all of these matters,” he said.