Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps they have scurried off to try to find their conscience and public service in this area. The Minister started his latest explanation of his conduct today by supposedly clarifying the remarks he made about the whistleblowers in October last year when he accused them of not co-operating with the O'Mahoney tribunal. In his own way he put forward what has been described as an apology, but really it is a bit half-baked. His comments in October were not isolated; they were his consistent battle cry during the debate on these issues.

In May, when Deputy Collins welcomed the O'Mahoney report, he accused us of rejecting all of the conclusions contained in it when he stated that it was clear to any fair-minded observer that some of the most serious allegations made had no basis in reality. He was wrong and the Garda Síochána Inspectorate stated he was wrong. This month he told us he could take his explanation of the situation with Maurice McCabe and the O'Mahoney inquiry no further and that there was no basis to the allegation that he had misled the House. Today, again, he spent a considerable part of his contribution trying to cast doubt on a number of the allegations put forward by those Garda whistleblowers. The Minister made a list and stated there had been no finding to show these allegations were correct. I put it to the Minister that he is wrong. Denying the taxpayer revenue from fines that could have been collected is fraud and is perverting the course of justice. There have been no findings to state that these allegations are not correct.

The Minister sought to rely in his contribution on remarks made by Bob Olson. The Minister stated that the Garda Síochána Inspectorate had described the process as a managerial and administrative dysfunction. In actual fact, Professor Dermot Walsh made the point that there is a very thin line between mismanagement and corruption. As Deputy Wallace stated, the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, like the Comptroller and Auditor General, had a very narrow remit. It was not tasked with investigating corruption, and the quashing of penalty points is on the scale of corruption.

The reason these issues are under public scrutiny is not the fairy tale we listened to from the Taoiseach earlier that the Minister is the great Garda reformer. We know this is a lie from his contributions last year. The only reason this is on the agenda is the heroic efforts of the whistleblowers and their dogged determination, against the odds, in not letting the issue go. At every turn their efforts were met with belligerence and they were demonised, denied, vilified and ostracised by members of the force. It is their courage and strength that has resulted in the spotlight being put on this issue, to the very great benefit of all decent gardaí and all citizens of the State.

How the whistleblowers were dealt with is important because it will set the tone for others in the force and outside it for the future. I classify the Minister's remarks as mealy-mouthed and a grudging recognition of their role, which does not in any way ring true with me. These men exposed the fact that the solutions to the problems identified in An Garda Síochána by the Morris tribunal and the measures that the State put in place were not working, and that the mechanisms that we stated would lead to a breaking down of the blue wall of silence did not work. It is very important that their stance is protected.

The former confidential recipient, Oliver Connolly, put out a statement that the transcript that was discussed in the House was unlawfully recorded by Maurice McCabe. This is not true, and we need to put this on the record in the context that such recordings are often the only security and believable evidence whistleblowers have, and this source must be protected. Intra-party recordings are entirely different to third-party recordings, and this point must be made. Everything the whistleblowers did and every single step they took was lawful, but at every turn they were blocked.

When the penalty points issue was announced and became public, what was the first response of the former Garda Commissioner? Was it to speak to the lads, hear their concerns and see what was wrong? No, it was not. It was to put out a press statement that there was no question of a culture of termination of penalty points. The very next day the Commissioner ordered a notice to go up on the notice board in all Garda stations, to protect the reputation of An Garda Síochána, that no members of the Garda were to talk to external sources on pain of prosecution. He then called in the whistleblowers and threatened to take them off PULSE. John Wilson's car was searched and other circulars went up. These people were ostracised in the Garda stations where they worked. For these reasons, and not just the "disgusting" remark which verbalised his attitude, it was entirely appropriate for Commissioner Callinan to go.

To me, Commissioner Callinan epitomised the idea that An Garda Síochána could be above the law and was not open to challenge, and that its interests were separate from the interests of the public. This system was highlighted by Mr. Justice Smithwick, who spoke about those who put loyalty to the force above honesty. Every day when I drive down Pearse Street I see a row of cars parked on double yellow lines with not a ticket on them because everybody knows they belong to gardaí. Civil servants pay for parking across the road in the car park, but others believe that if one is a garda a perk of the job is that the law does not apply to one, and this is exactly what the Garda Síochána Inspectorate report identified.

The excuses stated by the assistant commissioner, Mr. O'Mahoney, included that these were gardaí on duty and they had an entitlement to write off penalty points. The Garda Síochána Inspectorate report focused on the fact they did not, and that just because one is a garda it does not mean one can use being late for work as an excuse for speeding, as a former commissioner appears to have done. One must agree with the rules of the road and the procedures in place.

A number of aspects of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate's report are interesting. This includes how accurately Garda Maurice McCabe understood the situation. His analysis was perfect. What is also interesting about the report is that the analysis we put forward and sent to the Minister and the RSA was pretty much spot on with regard to the Garda Síochána Inspectorate report. This analysis was compiled by a young solicitor, Leah O'Leary. How come a young solicitor and a Garda sergeant were able to expose what five superintendents, six chief superintendents and 28 staff could not do in the O'Mahoney report? It was because they did not have a vested interest. They were interested in the truth, and this was the difference.

Ordinary citizens in the State want a police force that is accountable. We have the Cooke inquiry, the Guerin inquiry and now a commission of inquiry into these latest allegations. The fact that there are illegal recordings which could have resulted in illegal prosecutions has huge ramifications for the State. The fact that one of these tapes will reveal that somebody was fitted up for a serious crime is very worrying, but it is not surprising. We have met people the length and breadth of the State whose lives have been ruined by the fact that their cases were not dealt with appropriately by the Garda. The actions of the Garda in Ian Bailey's case were described by five Supreme Court judges as breathtaking wrongful misbehaviour. These gardaí were sent to France to give information about his case. Baiba Saulite was a young woman who was shot dead and whose two children were left without their mother. Gardaí have brought information to the Minister stating that the abduction of her children was not properly investigated and this led to this woman losing her life and to her solicitor's life being endangered.

There have been cases of racial profiling of the Traveller community, an issue Deputy Mick Wallace and I raised with the Minister last year. The Minister is on the record as stating, "Both Deputies are a disgrace." We were a disgrace for putting on the record of this House the fact that racial profiling occurred. I spent the Sunday before last in Rathkeale, where a ten year old boy told me about how his house had been broken into and his family had been held at gunpoint in an armed robbery. This was a robbery the police never investigated because they were Travellers. He told me afterwards about how gardaí and the Criminal Assets Bureau had broken into his house and how he had got down on his knees and begged the gardaí not to shoot his granny and his mammy, yet it is claimed racial profiling does not occur in the State. This is what I am talking about. There are systemic problems in the operation of An Garda Síochána.

The last point I will make to the Minister is that the attitude of the Government is like the one I encountered when homeowners began to realise their houses were cracking because of pyrite. Cracks had emerged, but people were in denial. Those who raised and tried to state the issue must be dealt with were told not to talk about it because they would devalue the estate. Instead, it was suggested the cracks be covered up and that things would be okay. However, the truth will always come out and in that case, the only way to solve the problem was to remove the contaminated infill and rebuild the house. An Garda Síochána and the administration of justice cannot be restored with the Minister at the helm. I, too, will miss him, but his days are numbered.

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