Will the Garda Phone Tapping Debacle Lead to Internment?

Ireland may not be digesting the full content of the political crisis that befell this country as the cabinet met on the morning of 25th March 2014. Fianna Fail TD Willie O'Dea pointed to the extreme danger created by the fallout of the phone tapping scandal at many Garda stations throughout the country. Apparently as many as 100 rapists, murderers, and gangland leaders from the Limerick City area alone will seek access to the contents of the phone tapping tapes. If their solicitor used the telephone in that Garda station then they have the legal right to seek the tapes of that conversation. If they received a phone call from their mammy or as is their legal right made one phone call from the Garda station and that call was recorded without their permission or the respondents permission they have a legal right to challenge their conviction in the High Court and very likely to the Supreme Court of Ireland. Without going into the legal, constitutional or political consequences of this fact, Ireland could be financially destroyed by the consequences of a vast legal challenge by up to one thousand convicted criminals now held in custody by the Irish Justice system. But on that morning of Tuesday 25th March 2014 as Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan left his home and arrived at Garda HQ at 9.35am to officially confirm his resignation to the Irish Government did he actually know more than the Government knew. Martin Callinan was a professional Police Officer. In terms of professionalism let us examine other professions. Gynaecologists have a big wage but a low professional standard by the record of the amount of new born babies and mothers who die in this country because of medical negligence and incompetence. Building Engineers and Architects have a very bad record of professional competence but during the Celtic Tiger they became billionaires and millionaires. I could go on about the rats who abandoned ship and are now in Australia, Boston, Auckland, Quebec and London. But NO. I will dwell more on the professionalism of Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan who had 41 years experience as a Police Officer. Many might forget that Mr Callinan crossed swords with many obnoxious criminals in this country. He fought them on the streets. But more importantly he defeated them in the courts. By his shrewd but honest witness testament before the Irish courts. Against professional legal experts and barristers who have sucked this country dry with their obnoxious fees. Corruption for 40 years in Ireland will not be addressed until we destroy the legal profession. I've deliberately left my main point to the end. And I believe that Mr Callinan would have had the legal opinion made available to him about what may be coming down the road from convicted prisoners in Ireland over the next 28 days. Without tape evidence, without witness evidence some convicted prisoners will already know they were recorded by Gardaí without consent. I suspect that within the next 21 days a writ of Habeas Corpus will be presented to the High Court by at least one prisoner held in an Irish prison. If that prisoner is a danger to society, a rapist who is a danger to children, a terrorist who is a danger to society or a convicted murderer who is a danger to us all the Irish Government will be left with no option but to introduce a limited form of internment without trial. Government don't have legal, constitutional or political tools to deal with Habeas Corpus applications where precedence has already been set by the High Court such as in the Waterford case. To prevent catastrophic releases of highly dangerous persons from prison the government needs to pass emergency legislation. But under the constitution they cannot backdate legislation. So to prevent extremely dangerous people from gaining freedom through Habeas Corpus the Irish Government would need to seek an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland. To do that would take up to two years as the Irish political system is extremely slow, often laborious and mostly extremely corrupt. And so the only alternative open to government to prevent a mass exodus from Irish prisons is to introduce internment until a legal solution is found.

Is Allen Shatter more Sinister than Missing Documents and Phone Tapping?

I think that most commentators, media personnel, and politicians have missed the fact that Allen Shatter did not have a confidante in his office who could pass on important documents to him. He trusted NO-ONE. A document was processed at the Garda Commissioner's office on March 10 2014 for dispatch to Justice Minister Allen Shatter TD. Allen Shatter should have received that document before he left for Mexico three days later. It is alleged but questionable that Allen Shatter received that letter from the Commissioner 15 days later. I need to bring to the publics attention that the smallest retail outlet on the Island of Ireland has a confidante who would warn the manager or owner that she/he has received a gas bill that needed to be paid immediately. But the Minister in THE most important portfolio of Governance in the Republic of Ireland had no-one in his department to scan his mail for emergencies.

I must now create a scenario which could very well put this country in great danger where our Minister of Justice is not contactable and where attempts have been made to make him aware of a grave situation by his senior civil servants. A letter dispatched by the highest police officer in the land has been waiting on the Minister's response from March 10 2014 until March 25 2014. The letter contains information which may be so serious that it may bring down the state. Minister Allen Shatter is Minister for Justice in the Republic of Ireland.

But something else that needs to be brought to the attention of the Irish electorate is the dual role of the Minister's office. Our defence forces always had a Defence Minister. On  Allen Shatter TD's appointment he took over the ministry of defence. He took over responsibility for our naval forces, our Air core, and our army. Why would any elected representative want to control our policing service, our naval service, our Air Force? Also our police stations. And our telecommunications service with listening devices recording 16,000 conversations?

 

Now what happens if our military chiefs wish to pass on intelligence information to the Minister which is a matter of urgent state security but for that reason needs to be communicated in writing by personal courier? I mean intelligence of a grave nature such as the Russian fleet posing a threat to this country. Or an imminent terrorist attack on Dublin. But Mr Shatter is in the Bahamas. Can we be confident that this serious communication can be delivered to the Minister immediately? Perhaps the decision to amalgamate this countries justice and defence ministries should be reviewed? After all what benefit is there in joining the two? It can't be much of a financial saving. One Minister's salary from the multi million euro budget of the two ministries? If there is no budgetary advantage WHY would one TD be given two posts? Power? Control?