Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to update the Seanad and put on the record of the House certain matters that have been raised in the Oireachtas and in the media in recent days. As the Taoiseach said in the Dáil, I had no hand, act or part in the former Garda Commissioner's legal approach. I want to reiterate that point. The former Commissioner's legal approach was a matter for her alone and it would have been utterly inappropriate for me to interfere in that regard.

Many Members of the Oireachtas and others have suggested that I should have interfered. I have received legal advice again today from the Attorney General, who wrote to confirm that the legal position correctly conveyed from his office to the Department was that the approach to be adopted to adducing evidence by the then Garda Commissioner before the O'Higgins commission of investigation of May 2015 was a matter for the Garda Commissioner who was being legally advised separately, and that neither the Attorney General nor the Minister had a function regarding the evidence any other party, including the Garda Commissioner, to a commission of investigation might adduce. In other words, the position to be adopted before the O'Higgins commission of investigation was for the Garda Commissioner and her own legal team to decide. In fact, it would have been inappropriate and improper for me to have interfered.

The political implication of the questions asked of me in recent days is that I did not take the concerns of whistleblowers seriously. The suggestion is that I did not act to improve how An Garda Síochána dealt with the issue of whistleblowing. The suggestion is that I did not want the truth to be found. Let me be clear, I utterly reject those suggestions. Actions speak louder than words. As Minister for Justice and Equality, I pursued a programme of fundamental reform of An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice and Equality. For decades, successive Governments failed to deal with the issue of whistleblowers. I was part of the Government that sought to bring about a transformative change in approach to whistleblowers and which enacted the Protected Disclosures Act, providing, for the first time, comprehensive whistleblower protection across all sectors of the economy.

I have always been a hard-working, proactive Minister, never afraid to tackle the issues in the three Departments in which I have served. Nobody could credibly accuse me of being work shy. As Minister for Justice and Equality, I enacted 27 pieces of legislation, including the Marriage Equality Bill and the legislation to establish the Policing Authority, one of the most fundamental reforms of An Garda Síochána in the history of the State.

The treatment of whistleblowers was always a priority on my desk as Minister for Justice and Equality. I was always scrupulously careful about the lines I could not cross. I shared the outrage that other Members of this House expressed when I read about the alleged treatment of some whistleblowers, but as Minister for Justice and Equality I always had to proceed on the principles of natural justice.

I strongly encouraged Garda management to put in place comprehensive policies and procedures for whistleblowers during my tenure as justice Minister, including bringing Transparency International on board to advise on best practice in relation to whistleblowers. I accepted and acted on the recommendations in the Guerin report by going to Government and establishing the O’Higgins commission. I acted on the findings of the O'Higgins commission. I used the powers available to me under the legislation establishing the Policing Authority to ask the authority to conduct a detailed examination of the procedures and policies around whistleblowing in An Garda Síochána and to prepare a report on the matter, including any recommendations necessary to ensure those arrangements operated to best practice. I also used the legal powers available to me to ask the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, to investigate mutters alleged to have occurred in relation to a meeting in Mullingar involving certain officers. I drove the establishment of the disclosures tribunal, working with officials in the Department of Justice and Equality, the Office of the Attorney General and with all Members of the Oireachtas. I empowered the tribunal with wide-ranging terms of reference so the truth could emerge. This is my record, and I stand over it.