How inaction shattered confidence in minister
Fine Gael backbenchers are muttering that Alan Shatter could have avoided much of the controversy if he had acted sooner, writes Michael Brennan.
Alan Shatter had spent the morning sacking his former friend from his Euro 12,500 per year part-time position as the contact for garda whistleblowers. Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein wanted him to resign. And he had a four-hour grilling at an Oireachtas committee coming up.
But he spent 20 minutes lecturing a tour group of elderly people from his constituency about how the Dail worked and about the controversy he was mired in. ...
