Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The public inquiry should have a criminal investigation running in parallel to it and this should be pursued by police from outside the country. Many bad things have happened.

The Taoiseach said that everybody has the presumption of innocence. He has a short memory. For several years, according to the Fine Gael-Labour Government, Maurice McCabe was guilty until proven innocent. Nóirín O'Sullivan talked yesterday of a campaign of false accusations against her. Is she saying that Maurice McCabe was lying? Is she saying that David Taylor, Keith Harrison, Nick Keogh, Sinéad Killian, Eve Doherty, Donal O'Connell and others are all liars? If she genuinely did not know how whistleblowers were treated, she is not fit for the job because she did not know what was going on in the force.

In the context of the O'Higgins inquiry, she instructed her legal team to give false evidence until Maurice McCabe's tape turned that upside down. If she was innocent, why did she not sanction or discipline the two gardaí involved?

It is a long time ago. How can the Taoiseach explain that when Nick Keogh reported Garda involvement in the heroin trade in Athlone he faced five internal investigations that same year but none before that. Why? Why was the superintendent whom Nick Keogh accused of bullying and harassing him put on the promotion list? In 2014, the Garda Commissioner appointed an assistant commissioner to look at Keith Harrison's complaint. The assistant commissioner leaked information back to the superintendent who was the subject of the complaint. On foot of a different complaint involving the very same superintendent that same assistant commissioner was asked to carry out an investigation. If all this was not bad enough, when GSOC, following its investigation into the second matter, asked for disciplinary proceedings to be taken by An Garda Síochána, whom did Nóirín appoint over it? One would never guess - the same assistant commissioner.

In early 2014, a journalist contacted David Taylor when he was press officer. The journalist told him he had been to the family of the girl at the centre of the sex allegations against Maurice McCabe. He told him he had a great story which would be really damaging for McCabe. Taylor texted Callinan and O'Sullivan and told them the good news. Callinan texted him back to welcome it. Nóirín decided to ring him and have a good chat about it. This is the woman who said several weeks ago on "Today with Sean O'Rourke" that she had absolutely no knowledge and nor was she privy to any campaign to undermine any individual in An Garda Síochána. The press officer, David Taylor, who was given back his job yesterday, stated everybody in headquarters knew about the campaign against Maurice McCabe. Everybody, seemingly Taoiseach, except Nóirín. What does the Taoiseach think?

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