Mr. Jim Griffin:

I can only talk about my personal experience of dismissal. It happened as a result of a grievance Coast Guard management had with me. It asked for a boat review of the Dunmore East Coast Guard unit. That is how it all started. It was called a Coast Guard boat review and there was no mention of a grievance or anything. It later became what was clearly a witch-hunt and then an investigation. Six or eight weeks into this boat review, the terminology used in emails sent to me began to include the word "investigation".

In my own circumstances, management came to ask me questions regarding the Dunmore East Coast Guard unit. I answered these openly and honestly. Management then asked if it could talk to my team members. At the time, there were 22 members of the team in Dunmore East. I said that it should of course feel free to ask any of my team whatever questions it wanted to ask. It said the questions would be based on what I had already been asked. At my hearing, held in the Ramada hotel in Waterford city, I was allowed to bring my deputy officer. I could bring whoever I wished from my team and I chose my deputy officer. My Deputy and I were clear that, if those questions were put to any of our team, they would answer in the same way we did, that is, openly and honestly. However, we found out afterwards that team members could not express themselves when questioned. Only yes-no answers were allowed. If they were asked whether there were non-Coast Guard members on the Dunmore East Coast Guard boat, they could only answer "Yes" or "No". As it transpired, we had the likes of Charlie Bird - whom I wish well if he is listening today - and other RTÉ correspondents on the boat when they were making programmes about safety at sea. We would get permission from our Coast Guard managers in this regard. They were the only people. From time to time, we also held wreath-laying ceremonies. As the Senator will know, the south-east coast has seen tragedy after tragedy at Dunmore East since 2006. Our unit was responsible for recovering most of those people. We brought their families out for wreath-laying ceremonies, which were always okayed by management. While I was able to explain that to management, when my team was asked whether people who were not Irish Coast Guard personnel had been on our boat, they had to answer "Yes". That was how management came after me.

At that time, I was a sitting member of CUAG having been elected onto it for a third time in 2018 but at no stage in my hearing was I told that I could rely on CUAG for backup or for help in my appeal process. I was sent email after email from a company called Graphite, which was investigating me, but my investigation was through management only and I do not believe my voice was expressed to anybody for fair hearing.