Alan Shatter’s fall as minister for justice and Leo Varadkar’s rise as taoiseach are inextricably linked. This matters because Shatter’s political corpse is buried in the foundations of the pedestal on which Varadkar now stands. Politics in the spring of 2014 centred increasingly on allegations made by Sgt Maurice McCabe about serious misconduct in An Garda Síochána. It coincided with astonishing allegations that The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) had been bugged. In an atmosphere where there much to be concerned about, almost anything could be believed and frequently was.
Shatter’s supposedly tardy handling of these allegations resulted in an epic political pile-up. The atmosphere was poisonous. McCabe, at considerable cost to himself, did the State substantial service. In return he was vilified in a whispering campaign that was subsequently described as a “campaign of calumny” by Mr Justice Peter Charleton at the Disclosures Tribunal. By any standard he suffered grievously. McCabe was not, however, an oracle. Some of the accusations he made were not upheld in subsequent inquiries. In any event, at the time they were made, they had the status of accusations only.
The issue that ended Shatter’s cabinet career and damaged his reputation permanently was whether he was more committed to finding the truth, or protecting the institutions he presided over. Was Shatter the fearless solicitor who successfully confronted the legal establishment or had he, ambition achieved, gone native in government? Perhaps the truth was more prosaic. Like many a minister before him who talked a good game in opposition, he may simply have been moithered by bureaucracies he struggled to fully command, despite some notable legislative achievements. But in public lore he became part of a gang that did-in Maurice McCabe.
Into this black and white narrative waded a young hero. In a moment that crystallised a reputation for straight talking, Varadkar publicly put the boot into Garda commissioner Martin Callinan. Off-the-record briefings put a 40-foot pole between Varadkar, who stood up for whistleblowers, and his colleague Shatter, who was to be found wanting, according to the briefings. In the making of myth, the then minister for justice was grist to Varadkar’s mill. He was part of the alchemy that created the political persona of a future party leader, the lightning from which he fashioned his halo. In his rise to the top, this was the moment of lift-off.
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Such was the frenzy, heightened by looming local and European elections, that Seán Guerin SC was asked to carry out what Enda Kenny called a “scoping exercise” to ascertain whether a full commission of investigation was required.. Opposition leader Micheál Martin invested heavily in excoriating Shatter. In the event, Martin, and by implication Varadkar, were supported by Guerin’s findings. The Guerin report said there was a “cause for concern as to the adequacy of the investigation” into complaints made by McCabe. Shatter failed to “find the means of heeding” McCabe. There was a clear need for a commission of investigation. Shatter resigned immediately as minister on May 7th, 2014.
Shatter did not treat accusation as fact, but he did ensure that accusations were investigated to ascertain the facts. It’s an old-fashioned approach that couldn’t outrun the pace of public fury ridden by political opportunism
Out of cabinet, he lost his Dáil seat in 2016. He was roadkill. Surprisingly, momentum to establish a commission slowed instantly. It was February 2015 before one was established under Judge Kevin O’Higgins. It reported on May 11th, 2016, 10 weeks after Shatter lost his seat. Timing is everything in politics. The timings of O’Higgins’s appointment and eventual report ensured its findings together with the judgment in separate proceedings that went all the way to the Supreme Court, have been virtually ignored since.
Shatter was vindicated by O’Higgins, who among other things said there “were pertinent and cumulatively most compelling considerations which amply justified the minister in acting as he did”. Shatter did not treat accusation as fact, but he did ensure that accusations were investigated to ascertain the facts. It’s an old-fashioned approach that couldn’t outrun the pace of public fury ridden by political opportunism. But that’s the way we live now, you see.
Flawed and ruinous
In separate legal proceedings Shatter took against Guerin, matters reached the Supreme Court. It ruled that he had not had fair procedure. Guerin spent 19 hours with McCabe but not one minute with Shatter. The consequence was flawed and ruinous but remains as a permanent cloud over Shatter’s reputation. In a minimalist move that was hardly commented on in the media, the criticisms of Shatter in Guerin are now redacted.
Inconvenience is sufficient cause for removal from office. Shatter, however, was effectively condemned by Guerin
The former minister has no cause for complaint about being effectively forced to resign. He might legitimately feel hard done by, but that’s a different matter. It’s the prerogative of every taoiseach to roll the political dice as he sees fit. His successor, Frances Fitzgerald, subsequently ended up in the belly of the same beast based on untrue political charges. Inconvenience is sufficient cause for removal from office. Shatter, however, was effectively condemned by Guerin.
Stepping aside as Taoiseach on December 17th, Micheál Martin said in the Dáil that “everybody who participates in public life knows the impact of the ever-faster rush to judge others and the rising sharpness with which comments are made”. In that new spirit, then, will the Taoiseach and Tánaiste apologise on behalf of the state to Alan Shatter?