Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I commend Mr. Justice Charleton on his extraordinary work.

He has done the State an extraordinary service with his report which is wide-ranging. It is very complimentary to Sergeant McCabe and damning of others. Most importantly, it draws very clear lessons on a number of public services, how they are organised and the unhealthy culture that underpins some of them which is crying out for reform and needs to be dealt with at the highest level of government, but more about that anon.

I also draw attention to the fact that Mr. Justice Charleton instances a number of occasions on which things could have been done differently and states that if they had, there would not have been a need for the tribunal. I add to those comments by saying that if senior people in government - I include, in particular, the then Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny - had taken a different attitude to the whistleblowing of Sergeant McCabe from the beginning, there would not have been a need for the tribunal.

The most striking aspect of the tribunal is the fact that Mr. Justice Charleton very much endorses a view that many of us and the public at large have of Sergeant McCabe through the finding that he is an entirely genuine person who did the State some service. The report effectively is a total vindication of his work. It has found that he "had the interests of the people of Ireland uppermost in his mind". That attitude and view of Sergeant McCabe permeates the entire report of the tribunal.

We know that, personally, Sergeant McCabe and his wife, Lorraine, and family have been through the most awful time imaginable in recent years and that he was coping with this in the full glare of the media and the public eye. It is a measure of his strength and that of his wife and family that they were able to withstand and come out of it not just totally vindicated but also as such a strong person and family. Mr. Justice Charleton refers to this by making the statement that Sergeamt McCabe "remains an officer of exemplary character and ... a person of admirable fortitude," in spite of all the enormous personal and professional difficulties with which he was faced in recent years. We, undoubtedly, owe him an enormous debt of gratitude and I think that very heartfelt feeling is shared right around the country for the extraordinary public service he has done. We can only express our heartfelt thanks and wish him and his family the very best for the future.

The Charleton report has found that Sergeant McCabe "was repulsively denigrated for being no more than a good citizen and police officer". It has also found: "In investigating the calumny against him, other aspects of our national life have been laid bare". These are critical findings of the tribunal. I note that the Minister for Justice and Equality did not say a huge amount about those other aspects of our national life that have been laid bare. I would have thought that, one week after the report came out, there would have been a more substantive response from the Government on the huge problems in some public services that have been laid bare in the report. In that regard, I certainly hope the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs will also be responding in this debate on areas within her responsibility. I have not heard that she is going to do so, but I expect that she will. It was disappointing to hear the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, earlier. His contribution fell very far short of what was required in response to the very deep problems and deep dysfunction that Mr. Justice Charleton had found, particularly in the Garda and Tusla.

On the severe findings made in the report against individuals, clearly, the stand-out person is the ex-Garda Commissioner Mr. Martin Callinan. The report has found that he engaged in a deliberate campaign to denigrate and smear Sergeant McCabe. It has to be said again that action could have been taken at an early stage when the then Commissioner made his infamous "disgusting" remark at the Committee of Public Account. That was a stand-out moment when action should have been taken, but it was not. Rather than the matter being dealt with, what we had was a circling of the wagons and senior Government people coming to the defence of the then Commissioner, which clearly was a mistake. One can say with regard to the deep-seated problems to which Mr. Justice Charleton refers within the Garda, that Mr. Callinan was the embodiment of a lot of them.

Equally, it was found that the then press officer, the now retired Superintendent Dave Taylor, who had been hand-picked by Mr. Callinan, had lacked all credibility as a witness. The report states:

...Superintendent David Taylor is a witness whose credibility was completely undermined by his own bitterness and by the untruthful nature of his affidavit ... [H]is motivation in bringing forward this allegation was to stop or undermine a criminal investigation rightly being taken against him...

This is very damning of him and also a dreadful reflection on the fact that he was the person who had been chosen to operate as the front person for the Garda. That was an extraordinary decision and it has to be down to Mr. Callinan.

On Tusla, what Mr. Justice Charleton has shown up is that it is an utterly dysfunctional organisation. While it is one which is extremely important insofar as it has been charged with responsibilities related to child welfare and child protection, that it could be shown to be so utterly dysfunctional and worse raises huge issues about accountability in the organisation and the need for political leadership in addressing the issues that have been identified. The Charleton report talks about "startling inefficiency and indolence" within the service, a situation where a letter from Tusla was delivered to the wrong address and a mix-up with files. It would be hard to make it up, given that the mistakes made were so grave. Extraordinarily, the conclusion come to by many that it had to have been a stitch-up was found to have been a coincidence. While I am not doubting that finding, the fact that there could have been such a litany of errors that were so damaging to Sergeant McCabe and that they took place within a new and supposedly modern organisation beggars belief. The depth of the dysfunction in the organisation that such errors could have been made is shocking.

Mr. Justice Charleton refers in his report to procedures being chaotic and says there was inertia in management in the Cavan-Monaghan district. While the mistake was discovered almost immediately, that was because when Ms D came to know of the rape allegation against Maurice McCabe, she protested that she had never claimed such a thing. If she had not come forward and done that, who knows what the outcome would have been? Mr. Justice Charleton said that should have resulted in an immediate and definitive correction within Tusla but it did not. Not only were serious errors made all along the way in the handling of the two complaints in respect of Maurice McCabe, the response of management was wholly inadequate when the errors came to light.

Mr. Justice Charleton also said that another essential procedure was not followed in 2006 and 2007, namely, the standard procedure by which a serious allegation of abuse against a person is put to that person. That never happened. There were breaches of procedure and protocol all over the place. Furthermore, the tribunal realised that the file had been filleted, in the term used by Mr Justice Charleton, which points to a huge level of dishonesty within the organisation. It points also to a huge level of dysfunction and a failure to stand up for the truth. Where serious errors were found, there was a complete and utter failure on the part of management to deal appropriately with them. These failures raise the most significant issues for the political system, in particular the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and how she will respond. This organisation was set up specifically to deal with child protection issues arising from the failings of the HSE, but it turns out that it is entirely dysfunctional.

The other issue relates to An Garda Síochána, in respect of which Mr Justice Charleton's findings are damning. He found a failure to be honest, to stand up for the truth and to come forward when wrongdoing was discovered. He found a mentality within the organisation which was more concerned with protecting itself and covering up than about the truth and serving the public interest. That mentality has been identified on umpteen occasions in some of our public bodies. It is a culture of going along to get along where loyalty to the organisation is more important than the truth or serving the public interest. The first responsibility of public servants is to serve the public and the public interest. Tusla and the Garda, however, have been found seriously wanting in that regard. Mr Justice Charleton said that the Garda offered no criticism of itself at all and that the force required a complete turnaround in its attitude.

Some members of the force were commended, for example, Chief Superintendent Terry McGinn. Mr. Justice Charleton said our police force was a resource of brilliant men and women and that while it was a single entry service, it regularly produced people of extraordinary devotion to duty and intelligence at the highest levels. As such, he said it is the police force that needs to be supported and fostered. He noted how dispiriting this must be for good and conscientious gardaí who are crying out for leadership within the force and at political level. Mr. Justice Charleton said that what is needed, therefore, is a serious change in culture.

In that regard, it is important to bear in mind the comments in the minority report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. In light of what Mr Justice Charleton has found, the Minister must look at that minority report again. It was produced by Ms Vicky Conway and Dr. Eddie Molloy and has been supported by some very eminent people, including Denis Bradley and Professor Dermot Walsh. What is required for the Garda more than anything else is independent oversight which is not captured by the Department of Justice and Equality or senior members of the force. I call on the Minister to change his approach in that regard.

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