Shatter announces Dáil comeback bid

Former Fine Gael TD and Minister for Justice Alan Shatter is plotting a Dáil comeback – this time, as an independent.

Shatter, who held a seat in in Dublin South between 1981 and 2002, and again from 2007 until 2016, had recently toyed with the idea of running for the European Parliament as an independent.

Most notably, Shatter was the Minister for Justice between 2011 and 2014, before resigning as a result of the of the Maurice McCabe affair.

Shatter has complained of being “cancelled” and being forced to resign from cabinet.

Shatter sat out the 2020 general election in Dublin Rathdown when Fine Gael won two seats in the form of Josepha Madigan and Neale Richmond.

With Dublin Rathdown being bumped up to four seats in the next general election, and the constituency having form in electing independents such as Shane Ross, it can be ascertained that Shatter fancies his chances of connecting with the electorate once again.

Shatter’s election leaflet reads that the Dáil “needs ndependent politicians you can rely upon to tell you the truth, even when it is difficult”.

In recent weeks, Shatter has launched a campaign calling for the abolition of the inheritance tax.

He told RTÉ “I will be asking the electorate in Dublin Rathdown to support me with their no 1 votes to illustrate the level of support for the abolition of inheritance tax.”

The Irish Times reported that following a public meeting in September, Shatter said “there were huge calls for me to run, I said I would think about it and was then inundated with emails from people who had been at the meeting.”

“I had a consultation with my family, some of whom think I’m completely crazy to get back into politics, which is understandable and basically I decided I was fed up of being on the sidelines watching things being poorly dealt with and I’m concerned about issues which extend beyond the inheritance tax issue.”