The Justice Minister is rejecting claims that he was stopped and cautioned at a Garda checkpoint in Dublin in 2011.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath questioned if the incident happened in the Dail this morning but Alan Shatter says no such event occurred at the time stated. Deputy McGrath asked the Tánaiste to urge the Justice Minister to make the garda report into the incident public. He says the issue is relevant given the penalty points quashing issue.

And he highlighted the Minister revealing about Deputy Mick Wallace. In the Dáil he asked the Tánaiste to confirm or deny if the incident had happened.

However the Minister for Justice is confirming that he was waved on at a checkpoint in the capital in late 2008 or 2009 after being unable to properly blow into a breathalyser because he is an asthmatic.

Minister Shatter says when he explained to the officer that he was on his way home from the Dail and had not consumed alcohol he was waved on.

In a statement, Mr. Shatter says "I do recall an occasion in 2009, or possibly late 2008, when there was a Garda night-time mandatory checkpoint in Pembroke Street in Dublin. There was a queue of motorists and when I was reached, like those before me, my Road Tax and Insurance discs were checked and I was asked to exhale into a breathalyser. I did so but failed to fully complete the task due to my being asthmatic".

The Minister says he explained this to the Garda and also explained that he was on his way home from the Dáil.

The Minister continues "The Garda consulted with another Garda and I was waved on. There was no question of my having consumed any alcohol, nor of my having committed any offence under the Road Traffic Acts".