Pressure grows on Taoiseach to answer family law case allegations

on 29/10/2012 09:14:08

Pressure is mounting on the Taoiseach to answer allegations that he asked Justice Minister Alan Shatter to intervene in a family law case.

An article in yesterday's Sunday Independent claimed that Enda Kenny wrote to Minister Alan Shatter making representations on behalf of a constituent, whose marriage breakdown ended up in the courts.

Minister Shatter has described the article as "thoroughly dishonest and inaccurate", and said that the newspaper's editor of "corrupted the content" of records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act .

"This was deliberately done to damage the Taoiseach's reputation, to represent me as having admonished the Taoiseach and to attract critical comment from Oireachtas members who had not read the correspondence concerned," he stated.

The editor of the paper is standing over the piece.

Fianna Fáil TD Niall Collins said that while Minister Shatter's reaction is "typical bluster" and the Taoiseach that has questions to answer.

"Alan Shatter has been quite emphatic," he said. "He has told the Taoiseach that under no circumstances would he, as Minister for Justice, seek to interfere in a family law matter, in the manner which was requested by the Taoiseach."