Alan Shatter

Born in Dublin to a Jewish family, Shatter is the son of Elaine and Reuben Shatter, an English couple who met by chance when they were both on holidays in Ireland in 1947.

He was educated at The High School, Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and the Europa Institute of the University of Amsterdam.

In his late teens he worked for two months in Israel on a kibbutz.

Shatter has lived most of his life in Dublin; he grew up in Rathgar and Rathfarnham and lives now in Ballinteer with his wife, Carol Ann (Danker) Shatter.

He has two adult children.

Alan Joseph Shatter (born 14 February 1951) is an Irish lawyer, author and former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Justice and Equality and Minister for Defence from 2011 to 2014.

He is a former chairperson of FLAC (the Free Legal Advice Centres), a former chairperson of CARE, an organisation that campaigned for child care and children's legislation reform in the 1970s and a former President of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports.

Among his professional affiliations, he is a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

Shatter was a partner in the Dublin law firm Gallagher Shatter (1977-2011).

As a solicitor he acted as advocate in many seminal and leading cases determined both by the High Court and Supreme Court.

He is the author of one of the major academic works on Irish family law (1977, 1981, 1986 and 1997) which advocated substantial constitutional and family law reform.

As a politician he played a lead role in effecting much of the constitutional and legislative change he advocated.

He is also the author of the satirical book Family Planning Irish Style (1979), and the novel Laura (1989).

Shatter was a member of Dublin County Council from 1979 to 1999 for the Rathfarnham local electoral area.

While in opposition, he published more private member's bills than any other TD had done previously.

Prior to becoming a member of the Oireachtas, Shatter satirised some of the bizarre measures contained in a government sponsored 1979 Family Planning Bill in a short best seller book, "Family Planning – Irish Style" which contained cartoons by Chaim Factor, a well known artist and sculptor.

Amongst his targets was a provision which required a medical prescription to purchase condoms with the prescription designating the monthly number of condoms that could be lawfully purchased.

During the 1980s, Shatter successfully lobbied for the establishment of an Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs.

He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South constituency from 1981 to 2002 and from 2007 to 2016.

Shatter was first elected to the Dáil at the 1981 general election, and was re-elected at each subsequent election until he lost his seat at the 2002 general election.

In 1985, Shatter visited the Soviet Union together with his Fine Gael colleague, Senator Seán O'Leary, and met with various Jewish refusenik families who had been prevented from emigrating to Israel and were in substantial difficulties with some family members imprisoned and others fired from academic and scientific jobs and forced to engage in menial employment.

Upon returning to Dublin, Shatter and O’Leary published a report and held a press conference on their plight.

His Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act 1989, radically reforming Irish family law, was the first piece of legislation enacted by an opposition TD for 35 years.

As Fine Gael’s Spokesperson on the Environment, he published in 1989 Ireland’s first ever legislation to establish an Environment Protection Agency.

His bill embraced the precautionary principle prioritizing environmental protection principles in government decision making.

Whilst it was opposed by the then Fianna Fáil government it laid the foundation for subsequent government legislation.

His Adoption Act 1991 provided for the recognition for the first time of foreign adoptions in Ireland.

He was a member of the Committee from its foundation in 1992, apart from a brief period in 1993 to 1994, and its chairman from December 1996 to June 1997.

He was also for many years a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Law Reform and Defence.

He is a former member also of the Health and Children Committee and the Special Committee that considered the wording for a Children's Rights referendum.

He was re-elected at the 2007 general election.

With interests in fifteen properties, Shatter had the largest property portfolio of any member of Ireland's cabinet while a cabinet minister (2011-2014).

Wording he drafted substantially influenced the content of an amendment on Children’s Rights incorporated into the Irish Constitution after a successful referendum in 2012.

Shatter was the founder of the Ireland/Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group and acted as its chairperson for many years.

The latter is the story of controversies that occurred in the period immediately preceding his resignation from government in May 2014, and the reports into these events.

In 2023, his book Cyril's Lottery of Life, a comic book with a protagonist who is an English attorney from a small town, was published.

His most recent books are Life is a Funny Business (2017) and Frenzy and Betrayal: The Anatomy of a Political Assassination (2019).

In 2017, his Life is a Funny Business was published by Poolbeg Press and in 2019 Frenzy and Betrayal: The Anatomy of a Political Assassination was published by Merrion Press.

The former is a biography of the years prior to his election as a member of the Irish parliament and their relationship to later events.

He ended his membership of Fine Gael in early 2018.