Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is sad that we are discussing these issues today. When the Garda Commissioner was appointed, we were led to believe there would be all sorts of sweeping changes. In reality, unfortunately, she has acted in much the same manner as previous Commissioners. Nothing has changed. In fact, things have got a lot worse. We are going back to the days of the early 1980s when the acronym GUBU, which stood for grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented, was coined. The events we are discussing today are GUBU-esque. Having investigated the circumstances in which there was interaction between the Commissioner and Garda whistleblowers, Mr. Justice O'Neill was incapable of deciphering who was and was not telling the truth. That is what it came down to. It amounts to an incredibly serious allegation when a member of our Judiciary is incapable of saying that the most senior garda in the State was telling the truth. That is why we are now moving towards the establishment of a commission of inquiry.

I do not believe the Commissioner in this matter, having come to that conclusion on the basis of her actions and how she instructed her legal counsel to deal with the O'Neill investigation. This is the most senior police person in the State who knows the legal system better than most. She gave a clear instruction to her senior counsel to show that Sergeant Maurice McCabe was acting with malice, seeking to get his own back on the force and that everything he said was unreliable. The words put out about him were a lot stronger than "unreliable". The Commissioner had the opportunity to clarify her instruction to her legal counsel but she chose to use legal privilege, as she is entitled to do. She opted not to waive that privilege and not to give a full and clear explanation for why her legal team used the methods and tactics they did. In its guide to legal professional privilege, published this month, the global law form DLA Piper states in respect of Ireland: "Note that legal professional privilege can be waived expressly or implied by the "owner" of the legal professional privilege, the client." The Commissioner was the client and if she wanted to explain herself, that was how she could have done it. She chose not to do so.

The information I have been given is that as many as ten journalists were briefed in regard to Sergeant McCabe. The Irish Timesstates that Superintendent David Taylor has put that on record. Superintendent Taylor was arrested by Detective Superintendent Jim McGowan, who is the Commissioner's husband. In the course of that arrest, Superintendent Taylor's Garda-issue mobile telephone was confiscated. That is the device which held the potential evidence but we do not know where that evidence is or who is in possession of it. It is remarkable that these circumstances were allowed to transpire. Deputy Eamon Ryan spoke about the checking of mobile telephones in evidence gathering. In the past, mobiles were just telephones and back in the 1980s it was a question of tapping a landline. There are now so many different platforms for communication that one cannot say where it starts and ends.

One could not make it up that the Garda Commissioner was investigated by a justice of the State and will now be investigated by a commission of inquiry under a Supreme Court judge, that the Commissioner's husband arrested one of the individuals in question, and that the telephone containing the evidence was taken by her husband and is now missing. I support my colleague from Wexford, Deputy Howlin, whom I have known all my life. He is not somebody who makes things up. He has a serious track record in terms of his dealings with the Morris tribunal and other events in the past. The information he has put on the record is helpful. Superintendent Taylor has been on leave from work for 21 months even though he has not been convicted of anything.

It is appropriate that the Garda Commissioner should step aside. It is important, in the interests of natural justice, that the Commissioner step aside in the interests of An Garda Síochána. The interests of one individual cannot come before those of the police force. There are approximately 15,000 members of An Garda Síochána and if one includes civilian staff, the total number of staff is almost 20,000. Their names and reputations are all in disrepute to some degree when the person at the top faces allegations as serious as those that have been made. The Commissioner should step aside. It is the appropriate thing to do in the interests of the Garda.

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