Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The long and terrible struggle of Maurice McCabe and other heroic Garda whistleblowers is certainly not over but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel after the horrendous journey these whistleblowers have undertaken to expose wrongdoing, malpractice, criminal misconduct and corruption in the Garda Síochána, an institution which is supposed to uphold law and justice. After the despicable treatment, the vilification and intimidation of the orchestrated campaign against them, perhaps now they will find justice and full vindication and those responsible for the campaign against them can be brought to justice. I certainly hope so.

They have shown bravery and determination but Maurice McCabe said today that if he had to go through it all again he might not do so. That is a very chilling thing because if one of the most heroic whistleblowers says he is not sure he would do it again it is a damning indictment of the State, the political system, the police and, indeed, our legislation on protected disclosures and tribunals and the encouragement given by this House to people to blow the whistle on wrongdoing in important institutions. We have a heavy responsibility to make sure this tribunal delivers justice for the individual whistleblowers and cleans out the rotten culture that appears to exist at the highest levels of An Garda Síochána, as well as in other State and non-State bodies that may have colluded in the despicable campaign of vilification and character assassination to defend practices that breached the standards An Garda Síochána is supposed to uphold.

I reiterate the tributes to Deputies Wallace and Clare Daly, who have doggedly pursued this matter from the outset, despite attempts to impugn their characters. It seems to be a standard feature of the way the State and the system respond to political or other whistleblowers that the first line of defence is to attack the whistleblower.

Hopefully, however, we are moving beyond that.

While some journalists should be commended for the role they have played in bringing us towards the truth of these matters, particularly Michael Clifford and Katie Hannon in recent times, I would make a point about others. We have had serious allegations that members of the media may also have been involved in recycling the malicious rumours against Maurice McCabe. That is a very serious issue that has to be got to the bottom of. Over the last week or so, the tendency to try to move an issue which should have been about Maurice McCabe, the treatment of whistleblowers and the issues they were trying to uncover, as well as the need to ensure that we root out any corruption and malpractice in the Garda, too often slid into a political debate and a ding-dong between political parties. It was a debate, often encouraged by the media, about who was going to be Taoiseach, who would be in government and whether it would lead to an election. It should be about the issues, however.

I think the terms of reference are comprehensive. I hope they will get justice for the whistleblowers but let us hope that we will also learn the political lessons from the debacle that has led us to this point.

See this speech in context