[Alan Shatter, top, and a word cloud whatsit of his speech. ‘Sorry’ not visible]

Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s statement on allegations in relation to An Garda Síochána to the Dáil this morning.

“I want to say, initially, that Deputy Martin was quite right to hand over to An Taoiseach last week material which he had received from a member of An Garda Síochána, Sergeant Maurice McCabe. An Taoiseach acknowledged that they were serious matters and undertook to review them.

If Deputy Martin’s primary motivation was to have these allegations examined, the proper course of action would have been to let An Taoiseach, who made it clear that he was treating the matter as one of the utmost seriousness, proceed with that examination and respond to the Deputy.

Instead, the Deputy came into this House last Thursday brandishing a document which he said was in my possession for two years. What the Deputy’s allegations amounted to was this: very serious allegations against the Gardaí had not been addressed, I had done nothing about them and I had not responded to correspondence from Sergeant McCabe.

The manner in which Deputy Martin presented the matter understandably led most people to believe that the allegations made had never before been addressed, had only arisen since my appointment as Minister, that the cases concerned had only arisen during my time in office and he sought to copper fasten this impression by accusing me of undermining the administration of justice in this State. No timeline was given by Deputy Martin for the cases investigated by An Garda Siochana or which had come before our courts. Moreover, no distinction was made by him between operational matters which are the responsibility of An Garda Siochana and policy issues which are my responsibility, a distinction well understood by my Fianna Fail predecessors in Justice.

I intend to demonstrate to the House today that none of Deputy Martins political charges are true.

Deputy Martin has spoken much in recent days about the maladministration of justice. There are of course fundamental principles of justice that are crucial to this State. They concern fundamental constitutional and human rights and the rule of law – something to which I have been passionately committed throughout my adult life.

As Minister, I cannot opt to respect the rights of one person and ignore the rights of others. Put simply, while, of course, any allegations of wrongdoing must be taken seriously, allegations are not facts. I cannot proceed on an assumption that allegations made by one member of An Garda Síochána against many of his colleagues are correct and ignore the rights of those against whom allegations are made. This basic principle holds whether we are talking about An Garda Síochána or any other organisation, group or individual.

I have no doubt that many people outside this House must find the twists and turns in relation to what, by any standards, is a complex set of circumstances bewildering but I am sure that they clearly understand one thing: allegations are not facts and that basic fairness requires when allegations are made against people they should not be assumed to be guilty without hearing the other side of the story or without evidence. What is crucial is that the evidence for allegations made is carefully and properly examined. Allegations may ultimately be proved to be true, partially true or false. Where false, the original allegation need not in any way be malicious but may derive from a mistaken perception or understanding of events. Life is complicated, not everything is simply black and white.

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