Cabinet agrees terms for inquiry into Guerin report findings

Cabinet today agreed the terms of reference for the commission of investigation in relation to the findings of the Guerin report.

Sean Guerin investigated claims that serious crimes were not properly investigated by the Garda and criticised the handling of the issue by the then minister for justice Alan Shatter.

The terms of reference of the commission will be published later this week.

In June, Mr Shatter launched an extraordinary attack on the Guerin report describing it as fundamentally flawed and also likening it to "kangaroo courts".

Earlier this month he decided not to proceed with his claim of a “reasonable apprehension of bias” on the part of Mr Guerin in preparing his report concerning Mr Shatter’s handling the complaints by Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe. A hearing date for Mr Shatter’s case challenging that report on various other grounds has yet to be fixed.

Mr Shatter resigned on May 7th, a day after publication of the Guerin report. He claims he should have been given the opportunity to provide Mr Guerin with relevant information that would have assisted him on obtaining “a rigorously accurate understanding” of the events surrounding Sgt McCabe’s complaints and Mr Shatter’s approach to those which could have resulted in Mr Guerin not drawing the disputed conclusions.