Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Earlier today the Minister seemed to downplay the significance of the allegations reported by the two Garda whistleblowers. There also seem to be some discrepancies with regard to the timescale on this issue. The Minister says he only received news of this in September. I note that on the Matt Cooper show on Thursday, the Minister said he had sight of the documentation in question in early October. However, an e-mail from the confidential recipient, Oliver Connolly, to the garda in question, dated 21 June, stated that he personally delivered the garda's previous e-mail communication for the attention of the Minister and that he met previously with the Minister, just prior to Easter, regarding the matters of concern to the garda and presented his confidential report. It went on to say that he was doing what he could. In July another e-mail to the garda, from the assistant private secretary of the Taoiseach, following the garda's having written to the Taoiseach to alert him of the issues, stated that the Taoiseach had asked the secretary to refer to the garda's recent e-mail, the contents of which had been noted. It went on to say that the Taoiseach had asked the secretary to say that he had forwarded the garda's e-mail to his colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, for his attention and consideration. Furthermore, it stated the Taoiseach had asked the Minister to respond directly to the garda on this matter. This e-mail was dated 25 July 2012. As far back as February, when the garda went to the confidential recipient, the confidential recipient said to him that he believed the garda and thought the Commissioner had a case to answer. He said he thought the garda had the evidence. He said they had destroyed the garda, that a man only has his reputation and that if he, the recipient, was asked, he would say the garda was only standing up for what was right.

Obviously, the confidential recipient gave the report to the Minister and he passed it on to the Garda Commissioner. As a result, what we got was the Commissioner investigating himself. I believe it is time for a public inquiry, because the notion of the Garda investigating itself is not on.

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