Breaking news, alan shatter, minister for justice, garda commissioner

Breaking news, alan shatter, minister for justice, garda commissioner

Many individuals and families will be bemused by the amount of Government and Opposition time taken up by the ‘Shatter-gate’ affair. As people struggle to meet their bills, politicians from all walks of life continue to naval gaze at their own self-importance, in simple terms, who gives a flying pig about Alan Shatter, when there is bread and butter to be put on the nations tale.

Minster for Justice Alan Shatter has insisted there is no Garda report about an incident in which he unsuccessfully attempted to complete a breathalyser test when he was stopped at a checkpoint four years ago.

In a statement released this morning ahead of a Dáil debate on a Fianna Fáil motion of no confidence in Mr Shatter, the Minister said the Department of Justice Secretary General, Brian Purcell, had contacted the Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan to ascertain if a report on the matter existed.

“The Commissioner has confirmed that he caused enquiries to be made by local Garda management as to whether or not a report of the incident was made at the time,” Mr Shatter said. “He is informed that no such report was generated by the Garda member involved and a further local search of the garda computer system has failed to locate any such report.”

The issue of Mr Shatter being stopped at the checkpoint was raised last week by Independent TD Mattie McGrath, who said gardaí would have had no choice but to make a report because of the nature of the incident.

Mr Shatter said he was asked to exhale into a breathalyser and did so but failed to fully complete the task due to being asthmatic. He said he explained this to the garda and also explained he was on his way home from the Dáil and had consumed no alcohol and was waved on.

On his way into Government Buildings this morning, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Mr Shatter had his full backing.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore also insisted Mr Shatter has given a full account of the incident and he criticised Fianna Fáil for bringing the motion of no confidence.

“He has issued two statements, one of which explained what happened when he was stopped and the second today saying that he has checked with the Garda Commissioner and there isn’t a Garda report on it,” Mr Gilmore told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland. “Frankly, I think Fianna Fáil are dragging the bottom of the barrel for an issue to have a Private Members Motion on,” he said.

“There are a lot more important issues in this country that need discussion in the Dáil than whether Alan Shatter was stopped at a checkpoint or not.”

Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins said the Tánaiste was missing the point in saying that his party was “dragging the bottom of the barrel” in bringing a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter.

“From our point of view we have serious concerns and we have reached a tipping point with this minister,” he told RTÉ Morning Ireland. “I think it’s fair to say that his judgement has been severely called into question and that is something which we cannot have hanging over the minister for justice of the day.”

The controversy followed the release of information by Mr Shatter about Independent TD Mick Wallace during a television discussion about a report on the handling of penalty points by some gardaí.

The report dismissed allegations of widespread corruption in the Garda over the cancellation of thousands of penalty points, but led to a superintendent and two inspectors being disciplined after they were found to have terminated points in 661 cases.

Mr Shatter said Mr Wallace had been stopped and cautioned while driving in Dublin city last year. Mr Wallace at first said he had no recollection of the issue but later clarified that he was seen using his mobile phone at traffic lights in the north inner city when a garda vehicle pulled up alongside him. He said he acknowledged his mistake and the gardaí involved used their discretion and drove away after making some small talk.

Mr Wallace lodged a complaint with the Standards in Public Office Commission about the release of the information, which Mr Shatter said came up in a routine garda briefing on penalty points.

Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton said he thought the episode was a “distraction” when more pressing matters were causing concern for people.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary-Who McDonald made clear her party would support the Fianna Fáil motion.

Rabo Pro 12 final, leinster rugby, ulster rugby

Rabo Pro 12 final, leinster rugby, ulster rugby

The shadow of two different shirts cast across his back is not how Cian Healy would prefer to go into a season’s league final. The imperatives around Lions Tours and PRO12 trophies don’t seamlessly mix and with Ulster quietly simmering in Belfast while the ballyhoo blows around Joe Schmidt’s players, well it’s enough to demand caution. In that the loosehead prop is a brand leader.

Healy has never been damned for being overly garrulous and while he ploughs a Leinster furrow in Dublin while Warren Gatland does the same with the Lions in Carton House, this week has been as much about blanking out the thinking of one Kiwi in Kildare, double guessing another in Ulster and listening to a third in the RDS. Gatland, Mark Anscombe and Schmidt may laugh about it later.

Where that leaves the Leinster players is a moot point as two schools of thought diverge. Forced into playing catch-up after jetting off to Hong Kong, or, on a war footing and bearing the scars of a long and successful season, form opposing views.

“They have an advantage but they’re at a disadvantage of not being in another final,” said Healy. “You can look at it from any way. We’re in a final for Leinster, we’re paying that a lot of respect. When we get into Lions we will be complete professionals, we’ll be sitting down, learning the moves and be up to scratch come training time and that’s that.”

Healy’s no drama queen. Moving from Leinster to Ireland, especially with Schmidt now in charge, should be seamless. But with English, Welsh and Scottish players all bringing their own nuances to the same moves, as well as a completely new set of instructions designed to undermine Australia, there is a newness to the undertaking with Gatland.

Hitting the books and learning the moves can be a difficult process, with some players needing to walk them through on the ground.

Others are more comfortable memorising details from the page. In that Healy doesn’t erect barriers where none exist.

Learning moves

“It depends. I’m alright on learning moves,” he says. “I can sit myself down and go through a play-book. That’s the thing. There is a play-book there. We don’t have to go out and walk through each and every move. Some places don’t use a play-book and you have to do repetition to learn. These ones, we can read them, we can know where we’re supposed to be and can run it straight off.”

Garda Adrian Donohoe, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, remembrance medal

Garda Adrian Donohoe, Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, remembrance medal

The family of Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe have received a special medal in his honour.

The 41-year-old was shot dead during a robbery at a credit union in Co Louth on 25 January.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan were at Dublin Castle as Det Donohoe's widow Caroline and two children were presented with the remembrance medal.

It was awarded during the annual garda memorial service for the 87 officers who lost their lives in the service of the State.

Commissioner Callinan described the murder of Det Donohoe as a terrible event that was still very raw.

Mr Shatter said it was an unspeakable crime and life-changing for his family.

He said it was tragic that Det Donohoe's name was added to a roll of honour that continues to get longer.

Internet Security Report

Internet Security Report

Rugby Ireland, RaboDirect Pro12, Leinster Rugby, Heineken Cup Final 2013, Stade Francais, Brian O’Driscoll, Aviva Stadium Dublin

Rugby Ireland, RaboDirect Pro12, Leinster Rugby, Heineken Cup Final 2013, Stade Francais, Brian O’Driscoll, Aviva Stadium Dublin

Leinster go Silver Mining

The fact that the chanting was sporadic, reserved for when Isa Nacewa touched the football, offered a microcosm of Leinster’s performance in the RaboDirect Pro12 semi-final victory over the Glasgow Warriors.

It was a fitful display, lacking the nuance and subtlety that normally accompanies the home side’s back play. The injuries to Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy and the ensuing reshuffle of the three quarters line had an impact but credit must go too to the manner in which Glasgow’s aggressive line speed in defence cut down space and time.

The Leinster supporters are keen to pay tribute at every turn to a New Zealander who has been outstanding for the province in his time here. The long goodbye has begun. Saturday night’s bruising victory means that it will be extended by a week before Nacewa embraces retirement and the long journey home to New Zealand.

Take stock

First, he’ll prepare for Friday night’s Amlin Challenge Cup final against Stade Francais and the following weekend return to the Ballsbridge venue for a Pro12 final against Ulster. It is only then that Nacewa will take stock of his time in Dublin.

Every time he took possession against the Warriors he ran aggressively, his clever footwork in contact, allowing him to defy the laws of physics in collision, when outweighed or outnumbered. He might even have claimed a try from a beautifully flighted cross-kick from outhalf Jonny Sexton but the ball bounced and scuttled away from his grasp.

In a dressing room, where bumps, bruises, blood and stitches were commonplace, Nacewa bore no visible scars as he offered an insight into the match. He paid tribute to a Glasgow team that came up agonisingly short on the night. “They are one of the hardest games of the season and when it comes to a semi-final, you have to throw everything at it and they did that. We were chasing them around the park for most of the second half.

“They were playing into a stiff breeze there (in the second half) and made the most of the ball that they had. We coughed up a lot of opportunities ourselves, so we’ve just got to do the basics right next week,” he added looking ahead to Stade Francais.

“We just need to really get the breakdown right. We knew Glasgow were going to come at us and they really disrupted our ball. It was a bit of the same last week against Ospreys too. So if we can clean up the breakdown area and get our basics right, we’re in for a good game.”

Leinster’s defensive line speed was too passive at times, allowing Glasgow boss most of the collisions and maximise impressive offloading. Fergus McFadden and Kevin McLaughlin – both of whom had excellent matches – showed that aggression in the tackle can yield turnovers.

Nacewa explained: “You know, line speed is a bit of an attitude thing and they really attacked well in the second half, so credit to them.”

The focus for now will be exclusively on Stade Francais before the big Pro12 decider.

“Ulster will get a bit of a rest next week and they’ve probably been the in-form team the whole season in this Pro 12. So they’re going to be primed and ready for us,” said Nacewa.

“It’s a great way to go off, with two finals. You work all year for this and there’s no better way than to stay at the RDS for two more weeks.”

It may not be quite the double they wanted, and the one they’ve come up a game short of in the last two seasons, but regardless of that another unbroken, unyielding run of end-of-sequence knock-out games is again already underlining how difficult a RaboDirect PRO12/Amlin Challenge Cup double will be for Leinster, even with both finals at the RDS.

In reaching the final of the former before turning their attention to the latter against Stade Francais next Friday, Leinster will spend the next 48 hours or more anxiously patching up their squad after a nerve-jangling, sapping and costly 17-15 semi-final win over Glasgow at the RDS on Saturday.

Gordon D’Arcy is their most acute concern, a nasty looking calf injury possibly ruling him out of both games. “Gordon cramped up pretty badly,” admitted Joe Schmidt. “They think it’s possible there’s a tear there but we’re not going to know until he’s been examined. So we’ll have a look and find out within the next 48 hours.”

As ever when Brian O’Driscoll goes down and reluctantly departs the fray, crowd and medical staff alike would have been immediately fretting like mother hens over the great man’s back injury, though Schmidt did not seem too perturbed.

“Brian just tightened right up and couldn’t really stretch out. He was keen to continue but really, it just wasn’t an option. Against the guys they’ve got, if you’re trying to catch hold of Hogg, Maitland or DTH van der Merwe – I won’t name their whole backline but they’re a handful. I wouldn’t be overly concerned and I’m normally concerned about most things, so hopefully it’s a good sign.”

Richardt Strauss and Fergus McFadden will have to manage knee and shin injuries, while Schmidt was hopeful Seán O’Brien, ruled out with a calf strain here, will come into the equation for the Stade game.

“To be honest I don’t know if we’ll be doing a lot in the front half of the week, we have six guys who are off to the Lions, to London, for the whole of Monday, so our training will be restricted probably to Tuesday and Wednesday.”

Medical staff

Asked if this was the week Leinster’s medical staff will come into their own, Schmidt quipped: “They didn’t do too well today! They need to work on their fitness; there were a lot of guys going down. But they do a super job and they’ll have the glue and sticky tape out, and hopefully that will mean we can piece together a team for next week and then the week after, when we’re just delighted we’re not going to be on holiday.”

Verily, though, this was not what the doctors ordered six days before the first of those RDS finals against a rested Stade Francais, an occasion which, alas, will not be illuminated by a last appearance in European rugby by one-time Leinster icon Felipe Contepomi, as Stade have not registered him for the competition. Against that, former Leinster prop Stan Wright may feature.

Such was the ferocity of the collisions and unrelenting tempo of Saturday’s game that players began dropping like flies from the moment O’Driscoll’s back seized up early on, and ultimately eight of the substitutions made by both sides, whether temporary or permanent, were injury-enforced.

Given Stuart Hogg had a conversion to take the sides into extra time, Schmidt was eternally grateful for that small mercy. “Yeah, we were 2-1 down in the try count as well so not only would it have extended the effort of players and furthered the fatigued, but also we have had to win that extra-time because on count back of tries they were up two to one, which is exactly what they did to us last time they were here.”

Leinster, truly with the best of respects, will be relieved to at least see the back of Glasgow. Lamenting Leinster’s exaction, some dropped balls and missed opportunities, Schmidt admitted Glasgow had their chances too.

“A really frustrating night,” admitted Schmidt. “I think we didn’t really have the platform, we missed a few lineouts where if you don’t get those you don’t get access to play off and then you don’t get any sort of momentum.”

He also lamented the poorly-officiated scrums, where Leinster mostly had the edge throughout, and highlighted one attacking five-metre scrum when Mike Ross was pinged even though Ryan Grant was virtually U-shaped.

“I mean, why would we collapse our scrum when we’ve been dominant five metres out from the line?” he asked rhetorically, and with justification.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO

Nurses and midwives are today expected to vote in favour of balloting for strike action if the Government moves to impose pay cuts.

The annual conference of theIrish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) will debate an emergency motion calling for a nationwide ballot for industrial action up to and including withdrawal of labour if the Government imposes cuts in pay or reductions in terms and conditions of employment.

The motion says that any such industrial action would form part of a wider campaign across the public service against Government pay cuts.

INMO members last month voted by more than 95 per cent against the proposed Croke Park II agreement.

Deadline

The Government has set a deadline of next Monday for the chief executive of the Labour Relations Commission Kieran Mulvey to report back to the Cabinet on whether he believes a negotiated agreement is possible on its plans to reduce the State’s pay and pensions bill by €1 billion over three years.

If no negotiated agreement is possible, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin is expected to bring recommendations to the Cabinet on Tuesday.

This could involve reaching agreements with individual unions or groups of unions in particular sectors that would then continue to receive the protections and guarantees set out under the Croke Park agreement.

Pay cuts
The implications of such a stance would be that other groups could face pay cuts, the freezing of increments and reductions in premium payments.

The INMO said it would “respond positively” with regard to any further engagement with the Labour Relations Commission for the purposes of finding payroll savings.

INMO and the Irish Medical Organisation had made a joint proposal for cost-saving to Mr Mulvey which they maintained would remove the need for any cuts in earnings or the introduction of a longer working week.

The plan effectively involved nurses taking over some roles, such as blood services, which are currently carried out by non-consultant hospital doctors.

INMO general secretary Liam Doran said any reforms had to be proportionate.

Mortgages, ECB rate, tracker mortgages, economy, finance

Banks not to pass on ECB rate cut to variable mortgages

About 400,000 homeowners on tracker mortgages will benefit from the 0.25 per cent interest rate cut announced by the European Central Bank yesterday but none of the State’s main banks have plans to pass the rate cut on to variable rate customers.

A similar number of homeowners have such mortgages and the gulf in interest rates between them and those on trackers is now as high as 3 per cent – a gap which will see a person with a €300,000 variable rate mortgage paying more than €500 a month more on loan repayments than someone with a tracker of the same size.

Record low
In a widely anticipated move, the ECB cut its main interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 0.5 per cent, a record low. While the rate cut was aimed at providing a shot in the arm for the European economy it will also reduce mortgage repayments for hundreds of thousands of Irish people with tracker mortgages tied to the Central Bank’s rates.

For every quarter of a point the ECB lowers its rates, the monthly cost of servicing a €100,000 tracker mortgage falls by about €15 so the average tracker mortgage holder with an outstanding loan of €300,000 will see monthly savings of €45 from the beginning of next month.

Rate reduction
As a result of the move – the fourth such rate reduction in the last 18 months – a person with a €300,000 tracker mortgage is now paying about €180 a month less than in the autumn of 2011, which amounts to a total annual saving of more than €2,100.

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While the cut will be automatically passed on to tracker mortgage holders, people with variable rate mortgages are at the mercy of individual banks and with banks pushing variable rate mortgages up irrespective of the course of action being followed by the ECB, the possibility of rate cuts being rolled out across the board seems remote. 

‘Variable rates’ Rachel Doyle of the Professional Insurance Brokers Association  said that while the announcement was “very welcome for those on tracker mortgages, the impact will be marginal by comparison with what the Irish banks are attempting to do with variable rates”.

The issue of most concern to Irish consumers now, she added, “is Irish bank interest rates which have been creeping up surreptitiously.

“In recent days under cover of the potential ECB rate cut we have seen AIB and EBS move to increase rates by 0.4 per cent and 0.25 per cent consecutively, which comes into effect from the beginning of June.”

The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association called on the Government to take the “strongest action possible” to force banks to pass on the reduction.

Asked whether Minister for Finance Michael Noonan had any comment on whether banks should pass on the rate cut to standard variable rate customers, his spokesman indicated he would not be intervening.

“This is purely a commercial matter for the banks,” the spokesman said.

AIB, EBS, Permanent TSB and Danske Bank said that while they kept rates under review they had no plans to lower them. Ulster Bank was unavailable for comment.

The ECB also signaled yesterday that further interest rate cuts could be on the cards.

Prison Officers Association is preparing to ballot members on strike action

The Prison Officers Association is preparing to ballot members on strike action and has said if the deal it reached on the failed Croke Park extension is not honored under any new agreement it will take industrial action.

At the opening of its annual conference in Athlone, Co Westmeath, last night, POA president Stephen Delaney sent a clear message to the Government that the association was serious in its threat to strike.

“The Prison Officers Association will engage in finding a solution, but let’s be crystal clear, we will not support any measures which are more stringent than the package of proposals that was already reluctantly accepted by our members. That is our position, which is non- negotiable.”

The association is the latest to put in place plans that could lead to strike action in the context of the Government’s efforts to reach a deal with unions aimed at finding €300 million in savings following the collapse of the Croke Park II deal.

The POA had reached a deal that officers were very satisfied with in that it protected many of their existing allowances at current levels.

However, when the Croke Park extension was rejected by public service unions the future of the terms secured by the prison officers were thrown into doubt.

Industrial action
Mr Delaney said an emergency motion on industrial action, up to and including striking, would be put to delegates at the conference today and tomorrow.

He said his association would “do what needs to be done” to avoid further pay cuts to its members.

“Five years of austerity has had a massive impact on prison officers and their families. Many are hurting and are under great financial pressure. A certain percentage of our members already have difficulty making ends meet, and this will increase if there are further cuts.

“Increasing numbers will have trouble with mortgages, they will be spending less in their communities – so instead of making a good and sound contribution, as they always have done, they will now become part of the economic problem.”

Good deal
He said Minister for Justice Alan Shatter had a responsibility to ensure a good deal for prison officers.

While some senior bankers were still earning over €800,000 per year, his members had met targets of saving €21 million from their payroll.