Mick Wallace considers legal action against Alan Shatter

Independent TD Mick Wallace is considering whether or not to take legal action against the Minister for Justice.

“ I am speaking with legal advisers and I’ll have to see what they advise me to do,” Mr Wallace said today.

His comments come after a ruling by the Data Protection Commissioner found that Alan Shatter broke data protection law live on television last year.

"The core of it for me is that he actually abused his ministerial office in order to score political points with me," Mr Wallace said told Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio.

“Minister Shatter didn’t just use the information he chose to use it,” Mr Wallace said.

While then Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan did not break the law, it was politically "questionable" that a commissioner can give the justice minister of the day information about "any member of the Oireachtas" and the Minister can " use that as he sees fit, as Minister Shatter did", he said.

Mr Wallace also criticised Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore for rallying behind Mr Shatter.

Every time the Taoiseach and the Labour Party went "out on a limb to defend" Mr Shatter they were "undermining their own support" among the public, Mr Wallace told RTÉ Radio. Mr Kenny and Labour had been " circling the wagons for a good while," he said.

Mr Kenny and Mr Gilmore have given public declarations of support for Mr Shatter in recent days.

Mr Wallace reiterated his call for Mr Shatter to resign. This call was not “about this one episode” but about his failure to deal with policy “in a proper healthy manner”, he said.

“He has not done a good job with policing in Ireland and the Taoiseach has stood over him, he said.

Mr Shatter is set to appeal a ruling by Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes on a complaint by Mr Wallace.

The ruling by Mr Hawkes centres on the Minister’s appearance alongside Mr Wallace on RTÉ’s Prime Time programme last May. Mr Shatter disclosed then that gardaí had cautioned Mr Wallace for using his mobile phone while driving near the Five Lamps in Dublin, prompting the TD’s complaint that he had broken the law on data protection.

While the Minister has not committed an offence, Mr Hawkes’s ruling further undermines his authority. The Minister, who said then Garda commissioner Martin Callinan had told him of the incident, later apologised to Mr Wallace in the Dáil.

Although senior Labour sources said that the ruling was “embarrassing” for Mr Shatter, the spokeswoman for Mr Gilmore made it clear last night that the Minister retains his confidence.

Similarly, Mr Kenny’s spokesman said “the answer is yes” when asked whether the Minister retains the Taoiseach’s confidence. The spokesman declined to comment further as the matter may be subject to further legal proceedings.