Corrections and clarifications

In an article (Ireland PM Enda Kenny expected to resign over police scandal, 20 February, online; Kenny likely to resign as Irish taoiseach over police scandal, 21 February, page 15 of the paper) we referred to the resignation of Alan Shatter, a former Irish justice minister, in the context of the allegations of the police whistleblower Sgt McCabe and the May 2014 Guerin report. We omitted to make clear that while Mr Shatter was required to resign at the time of the preliminary state-commissioned Guerin report because of the criticisms made of him in the report, subsequent developments then completely exonerated him from any wrongdoing. In particular, in May 2016, a statutory commission of investigation (the O’Higgins commission) concluded, inter alia, that when he was minister for justice Mr Shatter took “very seriously” the complaints and allegations made by Sgt McCabe. The O’Higgins commission found that Mr Shatter at all times dealt “professionally”, “promptly”, “reasonably” and “appropriately” with regard to Sgt McCabe’s concerns. Further, a judgment of the Irish court of appeal in November 2016 found that Mr Shatter should have been interviewed before adverse conclusions were reached against him and that the rules of natural justice and fairness had been breached. Subsequent to this court decision, the Guerin report was removed from government websites. We wish to apologise to Mr Shatter for omitting to refer to these matters.