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

There was much lamenting of the fate of the Tánaiste yesterday on the Government side of the House. Do not get me wrong - I have no axe to grind with her personally, but the person who has most to lament in this sorry saga is Sergeant Maurice McCabe who first had the bravery to make a complaint in 2006 about malpractice in An Garda Síochána.

It is now 2017 and we still have not got to the bottom of how the institutions that are supposed to uphold justice sought to suppress an effort by a member of the Garda Síochána to do what the Garda is supposed to do, uphold the law and justice. He has been put through the wringer. Those who have fallen victim to the scandal surrounding Maurice McCabe are the people who were responsible for upholding justice and the law and who should have protected Maurice McCabe, but failed to do so. They failed to prevent the smear campaign against Maurice McCabe which, had it succeeded and had he not had the presence of mind to have a tape recorder with him at the meeting with the senior gardaí, would have ruined his life beyond repair. That is what is at stake here. Of course, it goes beyond individuals. If they can do that to one whistleblower, how can they be trusted to uphold justice for all of society?

This motion proposes, in the aftermath of the scandals and revelations, that the Dáil was misled about what Ministers and Departments knew about the campaign to smear Maurice McCabe. It was hidden and information relevant to the Charleton tribunal was not handed over to the tribunal. Mr. Justice Charleton has made clear that this is a criminal offence. That is what we are discussing. Fintan O'Toole makes a very good case today that there is nothing ambiguous or problematic about the terms of reference of the Charleton tribunal. They are very clear that everything germane to the smear campaign against Maurice McCabe should be handed over to the tribunal. That means any and all Government officials, Ministers and members of the Garda Síochána who had information germane to this should have handed it over. However, and the Minister is right to nod, they did not do that. That is a key point.

It is entirely justified to suggest that we examine the terms of reference. Sinn Féin has done us a favour in making that suggestion this evening, whether it is a matter of adding a few lines or a matter of questioning whether we can trust either the politicians who are responsible for ensuring this information is provided or the officials or both to give the information which Mr. Justice Charleton needs and has insisted he must have. Then we get to the game of ping pong between the politicians and the departmental officials. The implication is that it did not happen under the former Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, and perhaps under the current Minister - I do not know as I am not quite clear about the explanation he is giving for the failure of his Department to hand over this material when it was supposed to. However, it did not happen under his or the previous Minister's watch.

The fish rots from the head, or at least the head must take responsibility. If the Minister's explanation is that it was the officials, he is saying that dysfunctional, rotten, corrupt, incompetent - I do not know what we can call them - officials are running rings around the Ministers who are supposed to run the Departments. That is what he is telling us. It is a damning indictment. Is the Minister telling us that officials are running rings around him or is it, in fact, politics at play, not incompetent officials? Is it a combination of both, with officials doing what they think the politicians want them to do or doing what politicians are giving them the nod and wink to do? I do not know. However, as Deputy O'Callaghan asked, who benefitted from the fact that the emails were suppressed? It is the Minister who is named as knowing things that she said she did not know. What is the Latin phrase for checking who benefits? I cannot remember. Perhaps the Ceann Comhairle's Latin is better than mine.

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