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THE IRISH COUNCIL of Civil Liberties has said that Justice Minister Alan Shatter “may have been editorial with the truth” over the GSOC bugging controversy and has called for an independent inquiry.
The human rights watchdog says that an independent inquiry is needed to “staunch the erosion of public trust in the independence and effectiveness of Ireland’s police accountability systems”.
“The GSOC seems not to have told the Minister for Justice its full reasons for launching a spying sweep and, in turn, the minister may have been editorial with the truth before the Dáil,” said ICCL director Mark Kelly.
As for the Garda Commissioner, it strains credulity for him to suggest that the possibility of unauthorised spying by members of An Garda Síochána can have been definitively eliminated in the space of a couple of days.
Shatter is due to appear before the Oireachtas Oversight committee on Wednesday evening to provide an update on the affair and to answer questions from committee members.
The committee’s chairman, Sinn Féin TD Padraig McLochlain, yesterday repeated his party’s call for an independent inquiry into the bugging allegations but his comments led to Fine Gael TD Charlie Flanagan questioning his ability to chair Wednesday’s meeting.
But the ICCL hsays that an independent inquiry could deal with unresolved concerns including who was behind the UK mobile phone network identified near the GSOC’s offices and what exactly prompted the security sweep to begin with.
“The Taoiseach faltered at the outset of this ongoing scandal, when he wrongly suggested that GSOC had breached a legal duty to report to the minister,” said Kelly.
“He could show real leadership at this juncture by moving swiftly to appoint an independent person to conduct an inquiry under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004.”
Never trust a man who paints his hair, the response from Shitter and Callinan last week is an insult to Irish people. Yesterday’s Sunday Times gave an excellent breakdown of events, and eluded to the much larger can of worms which is opening behind this.
Sorry, can’t let that go, it’s alluded.
Ye think that’s bad wait till you get further down, you will be correcting all morning, you will get no train spotting done today.
: )
all this is an insult to the irish peoples legal intelligence, time to go shatter for the truth has a meaning in the first place other wise it a lie and a con
Bye bye shatter
John
I similarly cannot take you seriously when you use a term such as “painting ones hair” and then express mistrust in the individual due to the practice ! Perhaps you should review your own style of …….logic and debate.
“Similarly” ? Are there a group of you who cannot take me seriously ? Were there comments deleted ?
Never Said Painting “ones” hair, reading not your strong suit so. ?
It’s a shame you can’t take me seriously your validation is so important to me, hopefully you will reconsider your decision Richard, along with the other people who felt “similarly”
I will get on to reviewing my style of ….logic and debate straight away so,
never mind the pedants john,they need this to feel superior
great comment by the way and i agree
I’m sick and tired of ‘political speak’.
I’ve never seen such evasive wordplay in use over one event.
He is asked a question like ‘was their a bug sweep’ and his answer was ‘there was no unauthorized sweep’..
Meaning there may have been an authorized one.
He knows the question being asked and side steps it.
The result of this is that journalists are required to keep on it and dig deeper, all the while the politicians hope some other topic will pop up and peoples attention to this particular scandal dwindles.
It’s disrespectful to the public and a waste of everybody’s time.
I suspect he was asked ‘ was there a bug sweep’.
You’re getting annoying now Dark.
If you switch to his twitter feed, Dark has typos in some of the posts made recently
Dark..
May I suggest that if you don’t have a substantive comment to make relative to that being made, you take your lovely obsession with typos and insert it into your rectal cavity.
Many thanks.
You are a piece of filth
I agree if polititians actually came out and told people the truth instead of lying and covering up that with another lie etc the world would be a better place.
Human Rights Watchdog questions Shatters honesty. In all fairness “who doesn’t?”
Corrupt Garda and politicians have been running this country into the ground for years. They think they are above the ordinary decent people. There should be a full independent inquiry straight away.
Corruption has been in Irish Politics since the states inception.
it’s like being born with a mouth full of rotten teeth.
Corruption seems to be part of our national character, not alone do we put up with it we re-elect those found guilty of it. We also exported it in the past, check out the history of Tammeny Hall on the link below, and see how the corrupt Irish politicians brought New York to its knees
You are technically correct but it it would be wrong to believe that its because of the existance of the current State. E.g Lord Cornwallis bribed Irish parliamentarians the equivalent of €1 billion to pass the act of Union in the early 19th century. We have not managed to rid ourselves of corruption since the states foundation, but there have been slow improvements.
Editorial with truth…No s**t Sherlock. (And I don’t mean Joe)
Shatter has been found out. What a cretin.
The ICCL……yet another staunch anti Garda organization….surprise surprise surprise
This is the crowd that think prisoners have it too hard
…but they’re right on this one.
Deal with the substance of their argument and leave your bias to one side (if you can….)
How is prisoners havering a hard time Anti guards, the prison service look after prisoners , but Sean I can see where this is going with you, anyone who wants the guard to abide by the law is anti guards, I fully support some of my local guards who are good decent hardworking men and women , but the embarrassment they have to endure from some of there collages actions is unfair but if they do anything legal about it, they will be shunned like the penalty points whistleblower, if the guards want respect in the community then get rid of the thicks that go around breaking the law
Sean – I think that you are way off the Mark here in saying that the ICCL is anti anything – Like mostly everyone in this Country ( including most every Garda ) there is huge concern that Democracy seemed to have been usurped . While Mr Shatter and Mr Callinan do not appear to hold to a similar agenda !
The “Retirement” of both now, seems the only resolving and solution to what is quickly becoming an International embarrassment , to our small Democracy !
So they’re pro-human rights. You say they’re anti-Garda. Are the Garda ant-human rights?
It’s more than “getting rid of the thicks”.
If it’s true that Callinan let slip that he had seen a confidential GSOC file, then he should be fired immediately. It doesn’t matter whether he ordered the bugging. It doesn’t even matter if he knew about the bugging. In fact, it doesn’t even matter whether GSOC’s offices were actually bugged. He had access to material he must have suspected had been obtained illegally, and he did nothing about it.
The Gardai are supposed to uphold the law, including against themselves. If the Commissioner can’t see that, he’s not fit to be direct traffic in Bantry, let alone lead the force.
@sean. They are not anti guards they are pro human rights and you have no idea how much we need people on our corner who are like this. You have no idea what’s coming down the road if this is not exposed
And you do?
Given your comments elsewhere on the journal today, you are certainly anti-garda.
Its obvious you are a guard sandbag
I have a fairly good idea airleach just open your eyes. And yes I despise any organisation that abuse power and so should everyone.
Allo allo what is this about Bantry traffic.
Mr. Shatter should not be allowed to make any statements under Dail privilege relating to the GSOC issue. He should be invited to a forum where whatever is stated is not protected under privilege.
Mr. Callinan perhaps should gracefully bow out now and make himself available to whatever properly constituted inquiry is set up.
There is too much at stake for any further play acting with terminology etc. time now for some bald truths to be told.
Its difficult to see how Shatter and Callinan will survive this (career wise).
Shatter’s response has been textbook how-to-not handle a political crisis. Attempting to portray GSOC as the culprit and refusing an inquiry out of hand made him appear complicit in wrongdoing.
Kenny needs to make an unambiguous statement on the farce (if he can) and clarify his position.
i don’t think its difficult this is Ireland they will survive, the only people who don’t is the honest. enda Kenny is incapable of making a speech he to busy throwing play ground snipes at anyone who asks questions.
I just learned (by watching hearings in the Dail) that 1/3 of the staff at GSOC are former Gardai.
Does it not strike anyone as strange that an “independent investigative body” would be staffed 1 in 3 with colleagues of those being investigated? That is extremely troubling to me.
We need a truly independent agency, not one comprised of Garda “pals”. How did this get so incredibly broken?
I misheard the statement from the GSOC. It is approx 2/3 of the staff that are former Gardai.
2 out of 3 GSOC staff are ex-Gardai. Amazing.
It’s the journalists and former journalists connected to GSOC that you should be worried about. Sunday papers, GSOC, leaks…..hmmmm…….
Have you any evidence that these ex-gardaí have ever done their ‘pals’ any favours? If this were the case, would the relationship between GSOC and the gardaí not have been far less adversarial?
There is a story here for sure…but if and when they get found out,what happens!!!they get a massive pension!! Ah the auld paddies,you can’t beat us…
We are a small country.Callinane has dirt on shatter who has dirt on kenny who has dirt on shatters cousin who has dirt on simon o brien etc etc.They are rapidly running out of carpet to sweep their sh*te under and its beginning to seep back out at them.
I would agree with the sentiment that iccl are pro criminal and anti law and order in general and are made up mainly of defence solicitors making a killing off free legal aid which has been brushed under the carpet. However I also think there should be an independent enquiry, not because I think anything will be found but because without one the do gooders and conspiracy theorists won’t stop. So allow some do gooder group to pick an independent team of their choice from outside the jurisdiction to investigate. When they find no wrongdoing of our police force the cost of the investigation should be split between the gsoc and do gooder group. Everyone is a winner.
The top ranking Gardai / the Judiciary / the Garda ombudsman / state broadcasting / etc, etc,are all government appointees that is how irish Democracy is formed,handed out to friends of those that are in power at the time.Until this changes we are well and truly f——d.
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