Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan is to face an unprecedented commission of inquiry into allegations that she sought to blacken the name of a Garda officer who brought wrongdoing in the force to light.
O’Sullivan vehemently denies the allegations, which have been made by another Garda whistleblower, David Taylor, a former head of the Garda Press Office. He says he was told by O’Sullivan and her predecessor Martin Callinan to damage Sgt Maurice McCabe in the media. The aim, apparently, was to destroy McCabe’s credibility, and therefore diminish the impact of his complaints.
The brief explanation published by the Government on Wednesday, after an initial inquiry by former judge Iarfhlaith O’Neill to ascertain what, if any, further action should be taken in relation to the allegations, shows this is essentially a case of “he-said, she-said”.
The whistleblower alleges significant Garda malpractice. Garda management denies it. Both cannot be telling the truth.
The Government has appointed a commission with powers of discovery and compellability to get at the truth.
As the conclusions of O’Neill’s report to the Government put it: “It is imperative in the public interest that an inquiry is established immediately to ascertain the truth or falsity of these allegations.”
Off the agenda
Typically, such inquiries serve two dual purposes. They have their ostensible fact-finding function on issues of public concern. But equally importantly for Government, they are usually intended to take the issue off the immediate political agenda.
Any questions to Ministers can be answered with the equivalent of a get-out-of-jail-free card along the lines of “that’s a matter for the commission/tribunal/inquiry”.
But the establishment of the commission is evidence of just how little trust the Government has in the management of the Garda. The Garda Commissioner has repeatedly denied the allegations she is facing. The Government has taken these denials at face value – but only up to a point.
There has been no move against the commissioner, and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald told the Cabinet she retained full confidence in the commissioner. The Taoiseach followed suit in the Dáil on Wednesday.
But those expressions of trust sit alongside the legal process now under way into the allegations against her. Trust, but verify. Which is the same thing as not really trusting at all.
At the heart of this attitude is the experienced politician’s instinct for survival. Frances Fitzgerald learned from the experience of her predecessor Alan Shatter in many respects. But one lesson looms large: don’t get too close to the Garda Commissioner.
Discredited
The legal grounds for Shatter’s resignation in 2014 have been largely discredited after court actions by the former minister. But the judgments of politics are more abrupt, and less amenable to appeal. The message that Fitzgerald learned was to keep your distance from gardaí when they’re in trouble. A decade and more of Garda scandals have taught politicians that you can’t always believe gardaí when they say they’ve done nothing wrong.
The drama was heightened by an intervention of Labour leader Brendan Howlin in the Dáil on Wednesday when he said he had spoken to a journalist who had “direct knowledge of calls made by the Garda Commissioner to journalists during 2013 and 2014 in the course of which she made very serious allegations of sexual crimes having been committed by Sgt Maurice McCabe”.
In response to requests for clarification of the nature of this “direct knowledge”, Labour stayed quiet for several hours. Later, Howlin clarified that the journalist to whom he had spoken did not receive the calls in person, but rather had knowledge of them.
This was somewhat less dramatic, but Labour insists the information is credible and has called for the commissioner to step aside while the investigation is progressing. Sinn Féin had earlier called for the commissioner to step down.
Contracts
Whatever about Howlin’s contacts with journalists, the contacts between O’Sullivan and her predecessor and some journalists are certain to be probed by the commission. In particular, the commission will inquire into an RTÉ news broadcast last year which reported some of the findings of the O’Higgins report into garda malpractice.
The RTÉ report stressed some of Sgt McCabe’s evidence had not been accepted and was seen as quite favourable to the Garda. The O’Higgins report, when it was published, was much less flattering.
One specific term of reference of the commission is dedicated to this single broadcast. It sticks out like a sore thumb.
Translated, it means: did someone in the Garda seek to use RTÉ to spin against McCabe? This could put some journalists in a difficult position if they are asked about their relationship with their sources. It may put senior gardaí in an even more difficult position.
