Sir, – By no stretch of the imagination (or legislation) is it one of the official functions of a Minister for Justice to pass on to the public any political tittle-tattle he may have heard from a Garda Commissioner.
Accordingly, can we assume that the legal bills that Mr Shatter, who has now returned to the back benches, is running up in challenging the Data Protection Commissioner’s decision will be met from his own pocket and not from the public purse? – Yours, etc,
ROGER BLACKBURN,
Abbey Hill,
Naul,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – In light of the findings of the Data Protection Commissioner against Mr Shatter, it is worth casting our minds back to February 18th, 2010, when he had some damning remarks to make on the Dáil record on then minister for defence Willie O’Dea: “he admitted confidential information furnished to him as Minister for Defence . . . by members of the Garda Síochána had been improperly used for his own electoral gain . . . That is outrageous and unacceptable and he should no longer be a member of Cabinet”.
Even had Mr Shatter not already been so beleaguered by scandal, he had breached the standard to which he hoped to hold government while he was in opposition.
His resignation is appropriate, justified and overdue. – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN FITZPATRICK,
Kerrymount Rise,
Foxrock,
Dublin 18.