Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan’s latest statement will most likely satisfy the Government and some of the opposition parties.
It will get the commissioner and the force she leads through the immediate controversy thrown up in the wake of the report of Mr Justice Kevin O’Higgins into Sgt Maurice McCabe’s allegations of malpractice in the Cavan-Monaghan Garda division.
Ms O'Sullivan's comments are unlikely to quell all the questions about the affair, about her approach to it, or about the wider culture of the Garda Síochána.
There was relief in Government when the commissioner consented to make a statement in advance of a Dáil debate on the subject.
Given the repeated assertions from the Taoiseach and his Ministers - including Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald- that Ms O’Suillivan would address the apparent contradictions between her reported instructions to her lawyers and her public statements about the garda whistleblower Sgt McCabe, it would have been extraordinary had the Garda Commissioner ignored the requests from Government.
What they were seeking was that she provide “clarity” on the issue. She has done this on two principal issues.
She has clarified that she did not instruct her lawyers to impugn Sgt McCabe’s integrity, or to accuse him of malice.
But we knew this already, because it was contained in the second batch of transcripts leaked, which were, actually, to the Commissioner’s advantage.
They show Ms O’Sullivan’s lawyer confirming that he was mistaken in seeking to challenge Sgt McCabe’s “integrity”, as the first transcripts had attested. But he was clear that his instructions were to challenge Sgt McCabe’s “motivation and credibility”.
This is implicitly confirmed by the commissioner’s latest statement.
“Whatever its source, the net charge that is now being made is that the credibility and motivation of Sergeant McCabe was challenged,” her statement says.
“Having regard to the nature and seriousness of the allegations, and the duty to assist the Commission in its task of establishing the facts and truth, I cannot see how it would be in any way unreasonable, improper or avoidable to appropriately test and cross examine the evidence of all persons giving evidence to the Commission including Sergeant McCabe.”
This seems to confirm that Sgt McCabe’s motivation and credibility was indeed challenged by the commissioner’s counsel on her instructions, as the transcripts show.
The second issue on which the statement provides clarity is the importance of a meeting between two senior gardaí and Sgt McCabe in 2008 to discuss the complaints he was making at that stage.
It has been reported that the gardaí’s account of this meeting suggested that Sgt McCabe admitted malice against a senior garda officer as a motivation for some of his complaints. But when Sgt McCabe produced a recording of the meeting for the commission, it contradicted the account of the two gardaí.
There have been questions in the Dáil as to whether the discovery of the recording of the meeting was related to the apparent change in the approach of the Garda Commissioner’s counsel.
Ms Fitzgerald has also been asked if she has discussed this aspect of the controversy with the Commissioner and whether it might lead to disciplinary action within the gardaí.
Ms O’Sullivan has now asked the Minister to refer this matter to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) for investigation. So the clarity offered here is - yes, there may be a serious issue here and someone independent should investigate it.
The obvious question likely to be heard in the Dáil is why the commissioner is only acting on this now.
The image of a force - and its leadership - being happier to let such matters rest until they are forced to address them by outside pressures is hardly contradicted by the approach of the commissioner.
