Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On 28 January, I asked the Taoiseach to tell the House when he was first personally made aware of serious Garda malpractice in the Athlone area. Given that his memory is normally pretty good, I was surprised that he failed to recall it.

In 2012, a garda went to see the Taoiseach in Castlebar and told him about serious malpractice by a certain superintendent in the Athlone area. He told the Taoiseach, "If you don't do something about him, you will be reading about him in the papers". The Taoiseach expressed shock at that time about what this gentleman told him. However, later that year the Taoiseach gave approval for the promotion of this superintendent to chief superintendent. This same chief superintendent is now the subject of three different investigations.

That same garda contacted the Taoiseach again in November 2014, which is why I was particularly surprised that he did not remember him in January. Even though the garda highlighted more malpractice by the same gentleman, he has since been moved to Phoenix Park to work in the implementation of the Garda Inspectorate report.

What hope is there for reform as long as the old hierarchy remains in place? Surely the Taoiseach must realise this is part of the problem and not the solution. It is more than a year since the Taoiseach got rid of the former Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan. At this stage I am beginning to wonder why he bothered. The new Garda Commissioner is cut from the very same cloth and we are not looking at much different.

We have been speaking to some new whistleblowers of late, some of whom are trying to raise issues regarding gardaí involved in the drug trade. I will tell the Taoiseach what they are facing: harassment, bullying, intimidation, cover up, denial and delay. In one internal investigation, the garda about whom complaints had been made is being kept informed while those making the allegations are being harassed - all under the watch of the new commissioner. The same internal investigation has been going on for 11 months. It appears as if they are trying to break the man and I think they might.

Why would any garda be a whistleblower if it means being isolated and harassed for doing the right thing while the person about whom he is complaining gets promoted? Is the Taoiseach aware that since the Government did away with the confidential recipient, there has been no place for Garda whistleblowers to go because GSOC is not geared to deal with it? What will the Taoiseach do about it?

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