Minister Criticises Former Commissioner Over Garda Tapes

Minister criticises former commissioner over garda tapes

The Transport Minister has said the former Garda Commissioner should have told Alan Shatter about illegal garda taping sooner. Leo Varadkar says Martin Callinan should have informed Minister Shatter about the taping in November, as soon as it was stopped. He says it is a matter of concern that the former Commissioner knew of systematic taping for four months before asking that the Minister be informed. "What does strike me, however, is that the Commissioner did know that these unlawful recordings were being made as far back as November - and rather than informing the Minister for Justice at the time, as he should have done, he set up an internal committee within the garda and even made inquiries about destroying the tapes" he said. "That to me is a matter of much more concern than anything else" he added.