The President of the Court of Appeal says he believes the State has an obligation to see that Alan Shatter’s constitutional rights are vindicated.
The comment was made in Mr. Justice Sean Ryan’s judgement on the reliefs he’s entitled to after being denied the right of reply in the Guerin report.
Last November, the Court of Appeal decided Alan Shatter should have been asked for his version of events before Sean Guerin concluded he hadn’t adequately handled allegations of Garda misconduct made by whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
Today, the court granted a declaration to say that Mr. Guerin acted in breach of the requirements of natural justice in coming to the conclusions he did in a report that led to Mr. Shatter’s resignation as Minister for Justice the day after its publication in 2014.
The court refused to force the Government into amending the report but the President did say he believed it had an obligation to see that his constitutional rights are vindicated.
Costs were also awarded to Mr. Shatter but a stay was put on them to allow Mr. Guerin consider his position.
