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Has Alan Shatter used access to personal files to smear rivals?

category national | crime and justice | opinion/analysis author Sunday May 19, 2013 15:37author by maothail lad

Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Mick Wallace were on Prime Time last night to talk about the penalty points report and the appearance of Commissioner Martin Callinan at a Public Accounts Committee meeting earlier that day.

During the chat, Mr Shatter accused Mr Wallace of having been stopped by the Gardaí last May.

He said – with the authority of someone who may have actually seen a file on the subject – that Mr Wallace was on his phone while driving.

Now apart from him putting a rivals personal record in the public domain, is it not wrong for the minister to know specific cases? Is this a breach of data protection? and what sort of access has the minister to citizens personal information?

How Did He Know? | Broadsheet.ie

Comments (15 of 15)

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author by not requiredpublication date Sun May 19, 2013 16:42author address author phone

I think it raises some interesting issues alright. It is a clear breach of data protection,whats next can an employer or rival collegue ring a gard and ask him about stuff i might or might not have done 10 years ago?

It does raise the question.

Although Mick Wallace,the crook is no angel himself,he has filed false tax returns,and has raided public funds,are the people of wexford mental voting him into power,i know its his first term but on first impression this guy is a clear crook and his actions are not the actions of a man that represents you or me joe public.

He is an independant alright,a self serving rat. There is a good reason why i dont vote independants most of them are greedy double jobbers,and are self serving rats.

author by Tpublication date Tue May 21, 2013 21:52author address author phone

Yes of course he did it to smear him. Why else would he?

The whole point of the constant attacks on Wallace is that FG & Labour want him out of his seat and they are working hard to ensure he doesn't get in the next time around because FG expect to take that Wexford seat in the next election. If you check back at the 2011 election (see link below), Wallace topped the poll so FG & Lab know there is a lot of work to do to whittle away all those votes.

If we were to listen to the mainstream media you get the impression that Wallace is responsible for all the corruption and tax fraud in this country. It is possible that he has got more newsprint and media air-time than all the other rogues put together.

And while we are at it let's remind ourselves of some of these other rogues, taking some of the names that people might know and who are in NAMA or have loans from them -all of whom have been bailed out and we the public are paying for the gambles and speculations of these people. This is not the full list by any means.

Liam Carroll
Bernard McNamara
Sean Mulryan
Derek Quinlan
Paddy McKillen
Johnny Ronan & Richard Barrett of Treasury Holdings
Micheal O'Fylnn
Joe O'Reilly
Gerry Gannon
Sean Dunne
Paddy Kelly
Ray Grehan
Noel Smyth
Jim Mansfield
Sean Fitzpatrick
Owen O’Callaghan

This information was gleaned from: http://namawinelake.wordpress.com/the-developers/ -where they maintain a more complete list.

For the election database see the link below or just see the attached image which is a snapshot of the same

Wexford 2011 election results. Wallace topped the poll. And FG & Lab need to knock him out for next time around
Wexford 2011 election results. Wallace topped the poll. And FG & Lab need to knock him out for next time around

Related Link: http://electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=2011&cons=232
author by davepublication date Tue May 21, 2013 22:08author address author phone

It reads like a rogues gallery,that big bill we are now (the public) footing,has certainly brought this country to its knees.

We are getting no thanks for it either.

The current government need a booting out the door.

author by alan shatter and his romance novel...publication date Tue May 21, 2013 22:13author address author phone

Alan shatter has written a romance novel full of hard core erotica,has this man any sense of propriety or appropraiteness while in his minsterialship?

I hear you can benefit from the artist tax avoidance scam if you get your book published and dont have to pay a penny back to government.

Link here: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/fifty-shades-of-al....html

author by davepublication date Tue May 21, 2013 22:19author address author phone

This is a clear case of mud slinging and smear campaigning probably no doubt coming from mick wallace's side no doubt.

This is more about the credibility of political 'personalities' than it is about current political issues relating to the points argument.

author by grainnepublication date Tue May 21, 2013 23:15author address author phone

Oh boohoo,populist parties want to out the ''independant'' looking out for all our needs(sarcasm) mick wallace.
Didnt that crook raid public funds ,and file false tax returns for his own personal monetary gain,he is a double jobber at best ,and a self serving crook at worst.
Im not one bit concerned populist parties want to out him,i would rather see an honest ''independant'' in there than a self serving double jobbing professional moaner..

author by leftypublication date Wed May 22, 2013 07:47author address author phone

Alan Shatter used his office to obtain private information on a political rival to smear him with on a public tv debate.

This has nothing to do with the substantive issue of the removal of fixed penalty points notices from the system after issue to privileged individuals, which is what wallace, clare daly and ming were trying to highlight. The fact that these individuals are not perfect in their own behaviour does not alter the validity of their point and the corrupt behaviour they are trying to highlight. i.e. the "service" of removal of fixed penalty point registered "crimes" from the system for privilleged individuals

Mick wallace was only cautioned in the instance mentioned by shatter. No charge was made. This is a normal use of garda discretion. Since there was no actual crime registered, there was no paper trail so this information was relayed to shatter by word of mouth. He had no business asking for or using such info for political purposes

You and I would be refused access to such info under FOI legislation so why was it ok for shatter to reveal it on prime time tv to smear a political rival??

It's made worse by the fact that shatter is "double jobbing" as minister for justice and also minister in charge of the army.

author by W. Finnertypublication date Wed May 22, 2013 08:28author address author phone

"He said there could be exceptional circumstances in which a Minister for Justice could receive confidential information about members of the House."

The above excerpt on the time-wasting, money-wasting, energy-wasting, and, worst of all DISTRACTING "big bottle of smoke" (as I see it) Shatter/Wallace drama is from the following RTE www address:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0521/451636-penalty-points/

[off topic material hidden by moderator]
William, a chara
I appreciate that you wish to keep the public informed about your case which is why we allocated you your own thread. It is not fair of you to persist in drowning out other threads with this info.

Please, it would be helpful to the operation of the site if you just keep your thread updated and post a single link at the end of all of your posts so that anyone interested has easy access to that thread and can keep up to date on developments, without the need to make these large off topic posts on multiple threads.
rgds
wageslave



Related Link:
"Justice Minister Shatter TD, and Prime Minister Enda Kenny TD, government corruption, crime, cover-ups, impunity ..."
http://tinyurl.com/nfng6xd

author by davepublication date Wed May 22, 2013 11:42author address author phone

Wallace needs to be outed as the crook he is,and he is also a self serving double jobber,dont think i favour either canidate for that matter.

author by W. Finnertypublication date Wed May 22, 2013 12:38author address author phone

Reply to moderator's message at Wed May 22, 2013 08:28 ...

Thank you for the guidance you have provided.

I will re-post the Wed May 22, 2013 08:28 comment of mine in question on my "own thread" (as you have referred to it), using the title:

"Reply from The Standards in Public Office Commission ..."

I hope that will be okay with the Indymedia (Ireland) moderators.

If not, please let me know.

Regards,

William Finnerty.

author by wageslavepublication date Wed May 22, 2013 14:28author address author phone

Yes That's perfectly fine William. And whenever you are commenting on anything else, you can just add a direct link to your thread at the end of it for ease of access.
rgds
wageslave (mod)

author by ratwatchpublication date Wed May 22, 2013 14:39author address author phone

wallace may be a flawed individual but compared to the FG and Lab crooks selling off the country's resources and privatising state utilities, he's a saint.

At least he's standing up for the little guy in his speeches in the dail, and as such he is using his position as an elected TD in the manner he promised to.. As such he's representing the people who voted for him better than those who voted for Labour or FG who reneged on what they said they would do. So they blatantly lied to us to get into office and then proceeded to sell the family silver. I'd prefer wallace to most of those sly gombeens who are dumping austerity on those least able to handle it.

author by Tpublication date Wed May 22, 2013 16:08author address author phone

Can you clarify which parties you refer to as populist? I presume you don't mean FG as I can't make sense of the point you are trying to make.

author by grainnepublication date Wed May 22, 2013 23:43author address author phone

by populist parties,i mean the usual shower of crooks(those currently in the dail) being FG/LAB/FF etc..

author by W. Finnertypublication date Thu May 23, 2013 07:36author address author phone

Reply to "wageslave" (Moderator) at Wed May 22, 2013 14:28 ...

Thanks for your approval.

Best wishes.

William.

============

For anybody interested, the full text of my original comment at Wed May 22, 2013 08:28 on this thread, which has since been re-titled "Reply from The Standards in Public Office Commission", can be viewed at the following new www location:
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102060#comment295773


http://www.indymedia.ie/article/103657?comment_limit=0&condense_comments=false

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