There were sharp exchanges between Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and Sinn Féin spokesman Pádraig Mac Lochlainn in a row about Garda controversies, morale and their representative association conferences.

Mr Mac Lochlainn claimed the Minister had failed to learn lessons from the scandals and blamed everyone else but himself.

This was after Mr Shatter accused him of hypocrisy when he asked why a replacement was not sent to the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors’ conference (AGSI) when the Minister could not attend.

Mr Shatter said he welcomed the plan to establish a police authority because “we need to take the politics out of An Garda Síochána”. If there was a morale problem “it’s because of the daily onslaught in this House by members of the Opposition on members of the Garda force”.

Mr Mac Lochlainn asked why the possibility of a replacement did not arise when Mr Shatter could not attend for personal reasons.

He said it was a “crisis point” when the GRA did not invite him to their conference for a second year in a row and he did not send a replacement to the AGSI conference.

'Hypocritical'
The Minister said the TD's concern was "touching" but "hypocritical" when he had spent most of the last four months "denigrating" An Garda Síochána.

Mr Shatter said he had invited the GRA in August 2012 to discuss issues of mutual interest but they did not take up the invitation. He said his department emailed the GRA in January 2013 to ask if it proposed to request a meeting in advance of the conference but it did not respond to this email and did not invite him to that conference.

Mr Mac Lochlainn told Mr Shatter “you really take no responsibility whatsoever for your own mishandling of all of these affairs. It’s everybody else’s fault but yours.

“Look in the mirror, that’s where the blame lies.”

Mr Shatter said Mr Mac Lochlainn could not make up his mind “whether he should come into this House and excoriate members of the Garda force or make a pretence of being supportive of [them].”