Sindo rebuff Shatter apology demand
The Editor of the Sunday Independent has issued a statement rejecting the content and tone of the statement issued earlier by the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter.
It comes after the newspaper ran a story today alleging that the Taoiseach had written to the Justice Minister asking him to "intervene" in a family law court case.
Minister Alan Shatter has described the article as thoroughly dishonest and inaccurate - but the Sunday Independent's Editor, Anne Harris says the newspaper stands over the story adding that both Minister Shatter and the Taoiseach were given the opportunity to comment last Friday, but only the Taoiseach had responded.
The Sunday Independent rejects the content and tone of the statement issued today by the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter and would like to emphasise that both the Taoiseach and the Minister were offered a full opportunity to comment last Friday.
Only the Taoiseach responded. We carried his response in full.
We stand by our story that the Taoiseach made representations on behalf of a constituent, regarding 'an issue on Family Law' and seeking details of ''...the present position in this case”.
We are concerned that the Minister’s statement contains information that does not seem to be correct.
The Minister refers to his correspondence with the Taoiseach as having stated: “It would be entirely improper for a member of Government to intervene in any way with Land Registry records”.
In fact, the correspondence released to the Sunday Independent refers to the fact that it would be entirely improper for a member of Government to intervene in any way with “Court (our emphasis) Registry” records.
The Sunday Independent relied on copies of correspondence in relation to this matter between the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice released by the Dept of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act.
