Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has insisted it would not have benefited him if he failed to act on the Garda commissioner's letter about taped phone calls as soon as he heard about it.

He asked the Opposition “what possible advantage would it be to me” not to take action as soon as he read the letter. “It was only made known to the Taoiseach on Sunday and to myself on Monday. It’s as simple as that.”

The beleaguered Minister defended the Attorney General over when she became aware of the system of recording phone calls. He also launched an attack on the Opposition, whom he accused of “contrived outrage” in ongoing Garda controversies.

Seven Cabinet members flanked Mr Shatter as he made a statement to the Dáil about the taping of phone calls at Garda stations, which continued for up to 30 years. They were Fine Gael Ministers Frances Fitzgerald, Michael Noonan, Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney, and Labour Ministers Pat Rabbitte, Brendan Howlin and Ruairí Quinn.

Mr Shatter said it was “simply not the case” that he knew last year about the system of recording phone calls in Garda stations.

'Not briefed'
He was "not briefed" on the matter until approximately 6pm on Monday in the Department of Justice. He said he was first furnished with the Garda commissioner's letter of March 10th at approximately 12.40pm on Tuesday*.

Defending the Attorney General, whose department was made aware last November of the widespread taping of phone calls, he said while she was made aware of the existence of tapes linked to specific legal proceedings and the possible existence of other tapes, “I am advised that she had no knowledge at the time of the circumstances surrou- nding the making of tapes, the legal background to their being made, the contents of such tapes or the number of tapes”.

Opposition TDs laughed at the Minister’s remarks and heckled him when he said that “we have been unflinching in our determination to face up to past difficulties”.

Surprise decision
In his statement following the Government's surprise decision to establish a commission of inquiry into the practice of recording phone calls, Mr Shatter said the commissioner's letter referred to phone calls being recorded into and out of a particular Garda station, which came to light during civil proceedings being taken by two people against An Garda Síochána for wrongful arrest and related matters.

He said the ombudsman’s report into a case where a man was assaulted by gardaí in Waterford was a “press release” and not a report to him or his department, and there was “no indication or suggestion of any nationwide system of recording in Garda stations”.

His department was made aware of the recordings to specific proceedings on February 28th. In the Garda commissioner’s letter, he said the confirmed number of recorded phone tapes since the 1980s was 2,485 and after 2008 recordings were made digitally.

All recordings except those on dedicated 999 lines were stopped on November 27th last year.

* This article was edited on March 27th, 2014