Multiple commentators invoked the term GUBU (grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented) to describe the Garda phone recordings controversy.
Shatter later admitted receiving his information from Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan but claimed he was not "in the business of collecting secret files on politicians".
[9] He wrote that the Attorney General had advised that the recordings be collected and an inventory be made identifying them by station, date and condition.
[9] On 26 March 2014, Taoiseach Enda Kenny informed the Dáil that he had sent Brian Purcell, the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, to Callinan the day before the Garda Commissioner's departure.
[11] In March 2014 the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said: ”For weeks, the ICCL has been calling for the creation of a proper statutory inquiry with the fact-finding powers necessary to restore public trust in the accountability of An Garda Síochána.
Today's revelations regarding the recording of calls to and from Garda stations may have grave ramifications for the administration of justice and this is the day when the rot must stop”.