Mr. John Wilson:

I thank the Chair and members of this committee for the invitation to address them. Some 39 years ago today, on 22 September 1982, I walked into the Garda Síochána College in Templemore, County Tipperary, as a shy, insecure teenager. When I left there six months later, I did so as a confident and highly motivated young man, ready to fulfil my role as a member of An Garda Síochána. I am sure that I was not the only one who felt like I did on that day, as we waited with anticipation to be sworn in as members of An Garda Síochána.

After the swearing-in ceremony, a senior Garda officer addressed us and told us that we were now members of the Garda family; that we could only depend on each other for support; and that it was our duty to take care of each other as members of the Garda family. Therein lies the problem. That mantra led to the toxic culture of loyalty before honesty that has existed within An Garda Síochána since its foundation and still exists today. I am sure that this culture of protecting the organisation and one's colleagues at all costs is not unique to An Garda Síochána, but there is a major difference between blind loyalty to a colleague who has made a genuine mistake and to a colleague who is engaged in criminality. Sadly, in my experience, these lines are blurred.

In the aftermath of making a statement of complaint against a Garda colleague who said that “what Maurice McCabe needs is a bullet in the head”, to when I subsequently made complaint to the Garda confidential recipient Mr. Oliver Connolly about the corrupt termination of lawfully issued fixed charge penalty notices by a senior Garda officers, I went from being a respected Garda colleague and an elected Garda Representative Association, GRA, district representative, to being viewed as an enemy within, in a relatively short amount of time.

In the aftermath of former Deputies Clare Daly and Mick Wallace bringing our allegations into the public domain, I was confronted by an inspector and a sergeant while I was in Cavan Garda station carrying out inquiries into ticket fixing, using An Garda Síochána's PULSE system. They told me to get out of the station and not to come back. On another occasion I was subjected to a search by a Garda sergeant, who believed that I had PULSE documents concealed in bags of shredded paper that I had removed from a waste bin at the rear of Monaghan Garda station to use as dog bedding, as I had done for several years. This search took place on a public roadway. I was on duty and in uniform at the time.

The former Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, who received my initial complaint about the corrupt determination of fixed charge penalty notices on 4 April 2012 from Mr. Oliver Connolly, the Garda confidential recipient, issued a direction in December 2012 prohibiting both myself and Sergeant Maurice McCabe from using the PULSE system. This meant that it was not possible for us to carry out our duties as members of An Garda Síochána.

Martin Callinan subsequently described our actions as “disgusting”, when he appeared before the Committee of Public Accounts on the 23 January 2014. The comments made by former Commissioner Callinan on that occasion were a clear warning to other members of An Garda Síochána who might have been considering making protected disclosures that there was no such thing as confidentiality and that their identities will become known, just as ours had.

In February 2013, I was heavily criticised by a member of the Judiciary acting in a personal capacity due to the fact that a judicial colleague had been named in a national newspaper as having had multiple penalty points terminated for speeding. I retired from An Garda Síochána on 1 May 2013, as my position had become untenable. This member of the Judiciary subsequently asked me to withdraw a complaint that I had made in September 2012 under An Garda Síochána anti-fraud policy against a senior Garda officer who was a serial ticket fixer. I believe that this request, which I ignored, was at the behest of the senior officer about whom I complained.

I welcome any legislation that offers protection to bona fide whistleblowers, but the sad reality is that until there is a major culture change in Ireland relating to the treatment of people who report wrongdoing in the workplace, life will continue to be very difficult for these people. The acceptance of the role of bona fide whistleblowers must become the rule and not the exception.