Government defeats motion of no confidence in Minister for Justice

The Fianna Fáil sponsored confidence motion against Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has been defeated by 88 votes to 45.

In a lively second debate on the motion, Independent TD Mattie McGrath repeated his challenge to Mr Shatter on the circumstances of his encounter with a Garda checkpoint in central Dublin.

Insisting that the Minister had not answered the questions he had asked in the Dáil last week, Mr McGrath said Mr Shatter should say if his behaviour towards gardaí was cordial and if he attempted to use the constitutional privilege available to TDs coming to and from the Dáil to avoid arrest.

“He needs to be explicit on the constitutional privilege,’’ Mr McGrath added. “We know he did; I know he did. It has been put to me that he did.’’

Mr McGrath said the Minister could ask the Garda Commissioner to ascertain directly from the gardai on duty at the time what had occurred.

He said Mr Shatter’s behaviour had been outratgeous.

Luke “Ming’’ Flanagan (Ind) asked why Mr Shatter had mentioned that he was on the way home from the Dáil. “If the Minister intends to morally lecture the rest of us, he should be aware the soap box on which he is standing is resting on quick sand,’’ he added.

Séamus Healy (Ind) said his particular reason for supporting the motion of no confidence was the Minister’s decision to close Kickham barracks in Clonmel in his Tipperary South constituency. “I believe the Minister was cold and callous and uncaring,’’ he added.

Ministerial colleagues and Government TDs rallied to the Minister’s defence, praising his record in the Department of Justice and rounding on the Opposition.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan described the debate as pointless. He said “a venial sin has been turned into a hanging offence. The mock outrage of Fianna Fáil makes them look ridiculous.”

In a staunch defence of Mr Shatter, he described him as a “very competent Minister whose record of reform is unsurpassed”.

He said he thought the former government party had embarked on a new departure. “I thought that the new young men would be different, policy driven, prepared to play the ball, not the man. No more Punch and Judy shows.”

But he said “unfortunately there’s no brave new world in Fianna Fáil. The bright young men have reverted to type - bushwhackers and character assassins.”

He believed they had introduced the motion of no confidence in Mr Shatter because “they cannot credibly discuss the main policy issues of the day. Fianna Fail cannot talk about the economy because they wrecked it and they hope that if they don’t mention it the electorate might have a bout of amnesia.”

He told Fianna Fáil: “Lads you should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn said he wanted to speak on the motion “because of the confidence I have in Alan Shatter”. He said “he has brought a sense of dynamism and a sense of energy” to the Department of Justice and “I can think of very, very few of his predecessors who have been able to do as much as he has done in such a short period of time”.

Fine Gael backbencher Olivia Mitchell, a Dublin South constituency colleague of Mr Shatter said “I do accept that Minister Shatter would have been wiser not to have shared the information about Deputy Wallace” and she understood Mr Wallace’s annoyance and hurt. “But I don’t think that slip was in any way reflective of a sinister Big Brother plan as is being suggested.”

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said Mr Shatter had introduced legislation which had fundamentally changed the protection of children and vulnerable people in the State.

His commitment to reform was evident in other areas also, including the change in family courts to take the sting of the courts out of family law disputes and encourage a more conciliatory and reflective approach.

Dara Murphy (FG) accused Fianna Fáil of giving up on real politics. “They are now a party handcuffed by their history and they are resorting to playing the man,’’ he added.

“But in Minister Alan Shatter they have indeed picked the one Minister embodying everything Fianna Fáil is not, a person of integrity, conviction, no small amount of bottle, a reforming Minister.’’

He added that Mr Shatter was man of great compassion and warmth.

Dara Calleary (FF) said that while Mr Shatter could be constructive and helpful at Oireachtas committee level, there was another side to him.

That side of his personality led him to treat the information he had on Independent TD Mick Wallace to score a political point on live television. The Garda Commissioner would, in future, he added, have to ask himself if the Minister would use information passed on to them for political point scoring.

Mr Calleary said very detailed allegations had been published about what was supposed to have happened when Mr Shatter encountered a Garda check point.

Only the Minister and a number of gardaí were there, he said.

Mr Calleary added he could not understand that in the context of a nine-page speech last night, when the Minister listed his achievements, he had not dealt with all of the specific allegations made against him.

Concluding the debate, Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins said the Minister should answer the questions hanging over him in the public interest, and he added that the Minister could ask the Garda Commissioner to provide a report and put it in the public domain, and putting the issue of what happened at the checkpoint to bed. Refusing to comply with a request to provide a breath test was not a "reasonable excuse'' defence as Mr Shatter claimed, he added