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

We have had the publication of the O'Higgins report into deficiencies, malpractice and a series of investigations at Bailieboro Garda station, the areas surrounding the station and its hinterland. We had much selective leaking and managed interpretations of the report in advance, which were disingenuous and led people down the wrong tracks. It needs to be put on the record that the O'Higgins report essentially vindicates, in the first instance, the central recommendation of the Guerin report, which was to establish a commission of investigation into the series of allegations at various levels of An Garda Síochána made by Sergeant Maurice McCabe on a number of occasions. They were contained in a dossier which he handed to me and which I, in turn, handed to the Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny. On foot of that dossier he initiated the Guerin report, which it is very clear about the veracity and credibility of Sergeant McCabe and the allegations he made. It recommended that a commission of investigation be established. It covers a whole series of investigations of incidents where serious crimes were committed, where victims were not dealt with properly and where they were not served properly by the institutions of the State, particularly An Garda Síochána, on those occasions. The most noteworthy was the case of Jerry McGrath who went on to murder Sylvia Roche-Kelly, following earlier criminal acts including the abduction of a child in Tipperary while he was out on bail and the assault on others.

As we know, this has been a long saga but throughout all of this there has been campaign to undermine Sergeant McCabe. There seemed to be a fundamental reluctance to accept the veracity and credibility of what he was about, to such an extent that it became necessary to establish a commission of investigation.

I ask people to read chapter 11 of the O'Higgins report regarding Fr. Michael Molloy, the missing computer and, incredibly, ending up in Sergeant McCabe being brought before disciplinary hearings of which he was later exonerated-----

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