Alan Shatter to be questioned in parliament over claims of bugging in police stations after top police officer steps down

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Ireland's justice minister will be fighting for his political survival in front of the Republic's parliament when he faces questions about allegations of widespread bugging in the country's Garda stations.

Alan Shatter was already expected to be criticised over the way he has handled a Garda Síochána whistleblowers scandal that on Tuesday resulted in the resignation of the state's top policeman, Martin Callinan.

But his ministry and the Garda were plunged into deeper controversy overnight with revelations in the Dublin media of thousands of secret recordings of conversations in Garda stations.

Shatter, who is also Ireland's defence minister, will field questions in the Dail about when he knew about the covert practice in Garda stations.

The Fine Gael-Labour government also announced the setting up of an inquiry into the legality and status of the alleged secret recordings.

The Guardian also understands that a number of Dublin-based journalists are going to allege that their phones have been routinely monitored by gardai.

Since the imposition of the 2005 Garda Síochána Act ,the force has been accused of scanning reporters' calls to establish if they have been talking to individual gardai. The 2005 Act imposes heavy penalties on Garda officers who brief members of the media.

If the inquiry confirms claims that calls between lawyers and suspects in Garda stations were monitored it could lead to legal challenges and the overturning of convictions.

Callinan, the Garda commissioner who resigned on Tuesday, stepped down after criticising two Garda whistleblowers who claimed that well-connected people in politics and other areas of public life in Ireland were treated more leniently over penalty points for traffic offences.

Callinan resigned from his position rather than apologise publicly to the two whistleblowers.