The hypocrisy of Ireland’s EU presidency commitments - opinion

In it, he depicted his government’s presidential priorities. One of the three priorities outlined was “the need to protect the fundamental values on which our Union is built at home and abroad.” On the issue of values, he asserted that “without upholding our values, we will not have a Union in which our people can flourish and which we are proud to call home.”

In its published program for the presidency, the Irish government pledged to promote and uphold fundamental rights, democratic values, the rule of law, protect minorities from discrimination, tackle antisemitism, and promote social cohesion.

In a rhetorical flourish, Martin told the parliament that “Europe believes in respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights – including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”

He also asserted that “We must defend and vindicate these values – both within Europe and globally – and this Parliament has a vital role to play.”

“The behavior of the Netanyahu government is increasingly extreme. There are no democratic or humanitarian values flexible enough to justify the scale of death, destruction, and displacement we have seen. It is a cause of deep and justified sadness and anger to many that Europe has not done enough to put pressure on Israel in the light of its egregious actions.”

There is credible and substantial criticism that can be justifiably voiced of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. It is rightly criticized by a majority of Israelis for many reasons not articulated by Martin. I also do not disagree with its depiction by Martin as “increasingly extreme,” nor with his concern about some events in the West Bank.

But the conflict of the last three years is egregiously distorted by an Israel-demonizing depiction that excludes all reference to Iran, Lebanon, Hamas, Hezbollah, the UNSC resolution embracing Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, the Israel-Lebanon agreement, and the US-Iran ceasefire agreement and events since.

It is also distorted when referencing Gaza, while omitting any reference to Hamas’s conduct on and since October 7, its refusal to disarm, and obstructing implementation of the UNSC resolution.

On the issue of “values,” Martin’s speech was a spectacle of unbridled hypocrisy. In the Irish government’s program for the presidency, it promises to “demonstrate” that the values it promotes “are not just abstract ideals but practical principles, including the rule of law which underpins the fairness, trust, and stability” of our system and “democratic values.” In the real world, this is just nauseating hyperbole.

The allegations were originally substantially promoted by then opposition leader, today’s Taoiseach Fianna Fail’s Micheal Martin in a press event held within the precincts of Leinster House, Ireland’s parliamentary building, in February 2014, repeated in the Dail chamber, promoted by broadcast and print media, and resulted in a preliminary “scoping” report of a barrister, Mr Sean Guerin SC, the current chair of the Bar Council of Ireland.

In Guerin’s report, I was condemned without a hearing, resulting in then Taoiseach Enda Kenny forcing my ministerial resignation after almost 30 years as a Dail member.

Having been totally vindicated by O’Higgins in 2016, after five years of stressful litigation, Ireland’s Supreme Court determined in February 2019 that Guerin had no remit to criticize my ministerial conduct and, as did the Court of Appeal over two years earlier, determined I had been denied fair procedures, a fair hearing, and constitutional justice. Guerin has never apologized for his deeply flawed “scoping exercise” and report.

The Guerin Report ended my ministerial career, hugely damaged my political credibility and reputation, resulted in my being treated by many as a pariah, my being targeted with antisemitic hate, including death threats, substantially contributed to my not being re-elected in 2016 and, despite my vindication, its narrative partially undermined my failed general election attempt in 2024.

The reputational damage it caused remains in people’s consciousness; it is still promoted by some and was exacerbated by an extraordinary series of other false allegations promoted in 2013 and in the first quarter of 2014, all later determined to be entirely untrue by other independent judicial inquiries and investigations.

The tsunami of falsity was unprecedented. It was accompanied by my being under consistent antisemitic attack on social media and other antisemitic acts, and whether antisemitism was a background factor was not a subject of any inquiry.

The Supreme Court determined that Guerin acted as an organ of the Irish state. Despite the many successful battles I fought to establish the truth, the reputational damage, and stress resulting from his report 12 years ago continues to blight my life.

In December 2020, almost two years after the Supreme Court’s decision and over four years after the O’Higgins Report, Martin, as Taoiseach, finally informed the Dail that the false content contained in the Guerin Report had been redacted and an amended version of the report lodged in the Parliamentary library together with the Supreme Court judgments.

In July 2023, then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, leader of the Fine Gael party of which I had remained a member until 2018, made the following statement in the Dail:

“In May 2014, a report of the government established non-statutory inquiry – the Guerin Report – was published and was critical of Mr Shatter’s conduct as Minister for Justice and Equality. The government acknowledges that Alan Shatter’s conduct as a minister was subsequently vindicated by the O’Higgins Commission in its report, which was published in May 2016.

“Moreover, in legal proceedings that culminated in a decision of the Supreme Court in February 2019, it was found that Mr Shatter had not been afforded fair procedures in the course of the inquiry. Certainly, in my view, Mr Shatter was not fairly treated by an organ of the state. I wish to acknowledge that in the chamber today.”

As in Micheal Martin’s December 2020 Dail statement, Varadkar omitted any apology on behalf of the state for what occurred. His statement was personal.

In the period preceding Varadkar’s Dail statement, I had, at Varadkar’s initiative, been directly engaged with Ireland’s attorney general in the preparation of an appropriate apology on behalf of the state for Guerin’s flawed report and its resulting personal damage. In 2023, Varadkar informed me Martin blocked the apology.

Precedent has long established that an Irish government acknowledgement that a person was wronged by an organ or agent of the state is accompanied by a formal apology on behalf of the state. A Supreme Court judgement that a person was wronged by a state agency also normally results in an apology by that agency or a state apology.

Over seven years ago, the Supreme Court found Guerin acted as an organ of the Irish state. During 2025, I wrote to both Micheal Martin and Simon Harris, Fine Gael’s current leader and deputy prime minister, several times asking that I receive the apology to which my family and I are entitled.

I again recently wrote to Martin and to members of Fine Gael’s parliamentary party. My emails to all of them have been entirely ignored. I have never received the courtesy of a substantive reply, even from Simon Harris, despite being a Fine Gael party member for approximately 35 years.

I believe that my family and I are entitled to an Irish state apology. In the light of my experience, Micheal Martin’s and the Irish government’s rhetoric about upholding the rule of law and fundamental values entirely lacks credibility and should be afforded none by other EU states.

The Dreyfus Affair roiled France from 1894 until 1906. But at least in France it generated controversy. Had Alfred Dreyfus been wrongly condemned in 21st-century Ireland, his plight would have been totally ignored, and all eyes averted.

That, in itself, starkly illustrates the hypocrisy of Martin’s speech to the European Parliament and of the commitments contained in his Government’s EU presidency program.