Shatter just the latest to discover that sorry seems to be the hardest word

You could never imagine Alan Shatter play a certain role in that drama about Tom Crean that seems to be on an endless run in Irish theatres – you know, the young officer who turns around to Crean and says something which he never heard an officer say before: “Sorry, I made a mistake.”

Shatter does many things. He does a competent and reforming Minister for Justice very well. He does energy and intellect. He does arrogance to a sublime degree. He does gloating superiority superbly. He does goading and hectoring and barracking like an old pro.

What he does not do is apologise. Never. Ever. Ever.

So it was no surprise then that after making deeply inappropriate use of confidential information about the independent Wexford TD Mick Wallace on Prime Time this time last week, he has spend the guts of the week making even longer, more elaborate and more self-serving explanations to justify it.

If journalists and political opponents had hoped to extract some kind of grudging apology from him, they were in for a shock – many doses of prolonged verbal waterboarding later from the Minister, and he is even more adamant in defending himself. 

So let’s put it into context. There were two Garda whistle-blowers who accessed the Pulse system and extracted information to show that thousands of penalty points had been quashed on the orders of senior Garda officers.

One of the Gardaí approached the independent TD for Dublin North, Clare Daly, who along with three other independent Deputies set up a campaign to highlight the issue.

The central allegations were that the system was being widely abused – that people were getting their points quashed because they were Gardaí, relatives of Gardaí, friends of Gardaí and well known figures in Irish society including sportspeople, journalists and judges. There were also allegations that some people who had points forgiven were later involved in serious or fatal accidents.

From a credibility point of view, there were some difficulties with the campaign, some of which were apparent from the start; others that became discernible at a later stage.

For one, Mick Wallace’s halo had long been dislodged since his status as an unpaid tax defaulter came to light.

Daly and Joan Collins availed of parliamentary privilege to disclose the names of a number of those who had points quashed including a judge, Mary Devins, rugby player  Ronan O’Gara and crime journalist Paul Williams.

The campaign was holed under the water line when it came to light that one of the campaigning TDs Luke Ming Flanagan had himself successfully canvassed to have two penalty points quashed for using a mobile phone while driving – after he wrote to local Gardaí saying he was on the way to the Dail.

What the hell was he thinking? It really robbed the campaign of any lingering credibility.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.