Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. The first thing I would like to do is put on the record of this House what the commission said about Sergeant McCabe. It stated:

Some people, wrongly and unfairly, cast aspersions on Sergeant McCabe’s motives; others were ambivalent about them. Sergeant McCabe acted out of genuine and legitimate concerns, and the commission unreservedly accepts his bona fides. Sergeant McCabe has shown courage, and performed a genuine public service at considerable personal cost. For this he is due the gratitude, not only of the general public, but also of An Garda Síochána. While some of his complaints have not been upheld by this commission, Sergeant McCabe is a man of integrity, whom the public can trust in the exercise of his duties. Assistant Commissioner Byrne told the commission that, “Sergeant McCabe is regarded as a highly efficient sergeant, competent”. This assessment is shared by the commission.

It is important for us to recall that in the context of the discussion here today. I want to remind the House of what the Garda Commissioner said when she was speaking about Sergeant McCabe and the commission. She said she accepted fully what was said in the commission investigation about him. That is the first point I want to make. We should be clear that the Commissioner absolutely accepts the findings of the investigation in regard to that, and is acting on the findings and the recommendations.

I did meet with the Garda Commissioner the day before yesterday. I was discussing a number of issues with her in regard to the inner city and gangland issues and the recommendations in the O'Higgins report. I understood at that point she had not yet issued the statement but she made some of the points that were subsequently in her statement in regard to her accepting the report and accepting Sergeant McCabe's bona fides, and that she never suggested malice was the motivation. I will obviously have ongoing discussions with her. I have no doubt she will seek to clarify as much as possible the points raised by Deputy Martin in her own interventions.

There are a number of places where those interventions will be made. I want to remind the House in the first instance that we now have in place, with the will of this House, an independent Policing Authority with an oversight role in regard to policing. I have forwarded the report to the Policing Authority and it has indicated publicly that it will be addressing and discussing the O'Higgins report with the Garda Commissioner. I think that is a very appropriate forum. One of the points that was made again and again in this House was that we should have a body with an oversight role. We will have a discussion in the House next week and the justice committee has also indicated it will take this forward.

Deputy Martin raised questions in several other areas, including the question of discipline in regard to the Mullingar incident.

This was one point I discussed with the Commissioner when I met her and, of course, whether An Garda Síochána would look at the commission's report with a view to seeing whether there were implications for discipline. The Commissioner informed me that the Garda would be looking at it from this perspective and with this lens and that it would be followed through by it. That is the answer to the Deputy's question on the particular incident.

The other point the Deputy made was on evidence and waiving a legal right. I am advised by the Attorney General that in making a distinction between briefing a legal team and the evidence it can be quite difficult to separate the two and that common sense would dictate that this is the case. Clearly, if the Commissioner saw fit to make a further comment and she was in a legal position to do so, it would be helpful in answering some of the points made by the Deputy. I have no doubt that within the legal constraints she will say as much as possible when she is questioned in the future on these issues.

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