THE MINISTER FOR Justice Alan Shatter has responded to claims made by Independent TD Mick Wallace that he is set to lodge a complaint against him following an appearance on RTÉ’s Prime Time.
The two featured on the show to discuss the garda inquiry into alleged abuse of the penalty points deletion system.
On Thursday night, the Justice Minister alleged that Wallace had himself been cautioned for driving while using a mobile phone, but was the benefit of garda discretion and avoided penalty points as a result.
Wallace, who said he had no idea what Shatter was referring to, this evening insisted he was unaware of the incident, and said a fixed charge notice was never issued to him.
However, in a statement this evening, Shatter upheld this view and said that Wallace was “making a pretence, for political purposes”.
“Deputy Wallace was last night effectively asserting that discretionary consideration afforded to him by An Garda Síochána should not be extended to others. I do not believe such an approach to be either acceptable or credible,” added the Minister.
Shatter added that Deputy Wallace along with “other Dáil colleagues was using confidential information to denigrate and attempt to damage the reputations of a number of private individuals as well as the entire garda force”.
Earlier this evening the TD said he was in the process of lodging a formal complaint with the Standards in Public Office Commission, alleging that Shatter’s comments were in breach of the legally binding code of conduct for people elected to public office.
He said he was also asking the Data Protection Commissioner to investigate “any possible breach of the Data Protection legislation, the basis for the Minister’s allegation, the circumstances surrounding the seeking and providing of any personal data to the Minister in preparation for the Prime Time debate”.
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