Former Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said on Friday that Taoiseach Enda Kenny "encouraged him to resign" from his position.

Mr Shatter stepped down as Minister for Justice and Minister for Defence in May 2014 after the findings of the Guerin report into Garda malpractice.

The Fine Gael TD said he was in the odd position of getting in trouble for telling the truth and claims his position was subsequently vindicated by the Fennelly report, which examined the circumstances around the retirement of the former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan.

Mr Shatter said: “I resigned for a number of reasons. There was an ongoing media frenzy we were heading into the local and European elections.

“It seemed it did not matter if I told the truth or not about issues, it was never ending. I was concerned that it would be damaging to colleagues good colleagues and friends who were running for local elections.

“That weighed heavily on me. Quite clearly the Taoiseach had his own perspective on these things. If I could put it simply he encouraged me to resign in the circumstances as they arose. That is the simple reality and fact.”

Mr Shatter stepped down after the report by senior counsel Sean Guerin into Garda malpractice was sent to the Taoiseach.

The report outlined how claims by a Garda whistleblower were handled by the Department of Justice, An Garda Siochana and the then minister Alan Shatter.

In an interview with the 'Inside Politics podcast' for The Irish Times Mr Shatter would not be drawn on whether he had spoken to Mr Kenny since his resignation.

Mr Shatter said he would like to serve as a minister again if re-elected in the three-seat constituency of Dublin Rathdown.

He said: “This is the constituency of death. One or two current sitting TDs are going to lose their seat. There are good people who may not get elected.

“There are good candidates and good sitting TDs who are not standing. My focus is to get re-elected. Would I like to find myself back in Cabinet? Of course I would. Do I believe that will happen? I simply don’t know.”

Mr Shatter strongly criticised Sinn Féin's commitment to abolish the Special Criminal Court in their general election manifesto.

The former minister said it would be grossly irresponsible for any sovernment to get rid of this court.

Mr Shatter said he had no doubt individuals who were engaged with the Provisional IRA were involved in criminality.

He said: "I have no doubt Sinn Féin know who these individuals are. I found what Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald had to say following the conviction of Thomas slab Murphy quite extraordinary from any people who are trying to form a government."

Mr Adams and Ms McDonald have described Mr Murphy as a "good republican" after he was convicted of tax evasion.

Mr Shatter said this was the wrong attitude to take and claimed the Sinn Féin commitment to abolish the court was to ensure “their friends are not in the future prosecuted before the Special Criminal Court”.