Garda crisis: How controversy turned into crisis

A public division over penalty points became the coalition's biggest crisis to date. Michael Brennan and Pat Leahy report

Alan Shatter and Martin Callinan: the latter's resignation only led to a temporary respite in the pressure on the minister. Picture: Collins

Sunday

It wasn't a quiet Sunday to begin with. The newspapers were full of stories about a looming cabinet showdown on the long-running penalty points controversy which had bedevilled the coalition government in recent months. ''Coalition in crisis headlines blared from the newsstands. Ministers and officials were already working to avoid a damaging split at cabinet.

A few days earlier, transport minister Leo Varadkar had set off the chain of events by calling ...