Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With the greatest of respect, what is obvious over the past year is that the system tried to bury this issue and the Minister went along with that modus operandi, despite the Road Safety Authority sounding alarm bells with him. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar, accepted the credibility of the whistleblower on this issue and I know he stood his ground with the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter. The Comptroller and Auditor General's report found about 67,000 cancellations, in contrast to about 600 in the O'Mahony report. It is not as if there was no evidence. The Road Safety Authority recommended that it would go to GSOC in the first instance but the Minister refused that recommendation; he had to be dragged screaming to get the report to GSOC eventually. The bottom line is that there is no difference of opinion. I refer to what the Minister said about the whistleblowers in this House on 1 October 2013: "Having engaged with Members of this House and published material they did not co-operate with the Garda investigations that took place."

His whole tone and demeanour was to isolate and undermine the whistleblowers and present them as unreliable mavericks who could not be trusted. That was the import of what he was at. There was no difference of opinion. He said outside the House that their presentations were wild and groundless. He should apologise. This should not descend into narrow definitions and disagreements. The Minister led the way in undermining people who were bringing to the surface issues of public importance, no matter how uncomfortable for some people. The whistleblowers were undermined. It goes to the heart of how a system and a Government treats whistleblowers. The Minister is very culpable with regard to the remarks he made on the floor of this House. It is quite shocking, unacceptable and disgraceful that he has not within him the capacity to do the honourable thing and say he was wrong to say what he said on the floor of the House and that he was wrong to seek to undermine the whistleblowers in this instance. That is what should happen now and let us not continue dancing on the point of a pin.

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