Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

4 o’clock

The unfolding events of the past ten days have been staggering. They have exposed a rotten system whereby attempts were made, apparently at the highest level, to smear as a sex abuser a man who had the courage to expose huge wrongdoings within An Garda Síochána. The strategy employed against Detective Sergeant Maurice McCabe is one in which officials of the Department of Justice and Equality and the former Tánaiste and Minister in that Department, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, despite their protestations, were complicit, either by their silence, negligence or, at best, incompetence. Those who continued to back the former Garda Commissioner, despite being aware of the strategy being deployed against Detective Sergeant McCabe, have serious questions to answer.

So much of what we have been told is simply not credible and many questions remain unanswered. How was it that following two substantial trawls for relevant documentation, for the purposes of the O'Neill inquiry and the Charleton tribunal, respectively, these damning emails were missed? How could that have happened? Were they viewed as not being relevant? What else has yet to be discovered? Given the supportive relationship between the former Minister and senior Department officials, on the one hand, and the former Garda Commissioner and her senior staff and colleagues, on the other, has the so-called trawl included a search of other than their official lines of communication? Is there any other avenue of address that has yet to be employed in order to ensure we have a comprehensive picture?

While I cannot confirm the authenticity of the claim, it seems an email was sent from an official in the Department of Justice and Equality to the then assistant commissioner, John Twomey, in September 2015. That email included a noteworthy sentence. I wonder if this is one of the 230 items to which the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, referred in last night's address. The email apparently contains the following sentence, "Same shit happening again, Wilson, Harrison and McCabe." It is important to establish the veracity of that document. We are advised that it is indeed a quotation from an email which issued from the Department. I would like to have that confirmed or denied vehemently, hoping the latter is the case.

It is hard to fathom that having taken a call on 13 November regarding these emails, the Minister, Deputy Flanagan, did not read them until a week later, 20 November. Having listened carefully to what he said last evening, surely he must accept that so much of this simply does not add up. I could go on but there is not the time to do so. I conclude by highlighting my concern at the decision of the Secretary General to bring forward his resignation with immediate effect yesterday, when the original tendering of his intention to resign indicated he would remain in position until February 2018. He had been summoned to come before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality this day week to discuss these matters. The Minister is not available because of other business and the former Tánaiste is perhaps not in a position to attend either. As Chairman of the committee, I wish to register my concern about this.

It is clear that a revision of the terms of reference of the tribunal of inquiry into protected disclosures made under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 and certain other matters is now required. The motion before the House is deserving of unanimous support.

See this speech in context