Updated 7.05pm
WHISTLEBLOWER SERGEANT GARDA Maurice McCabe still does not have access to the PULSE system, despite the publishing of the Guerin Report.
A garda spokesperson said:
[T]his matter remains under review. It is not appropriate to comment further until the review is completed.
Newly-appointed Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said this issue was discussed with acting Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan today.
She said it is an operational issue that is being reviewed, and she expects An Garda Síochána to make a statement on it in the coming days.
Vindicated
Meanwhile, opposition TDS have said the details revealed in the Guerin report – which cost Alan Shatter his job as Minister for Justice – have vindicated McCabe.
McCabe was the garda who made allegations of misconduct in three cases dealt with at Bailieboro garda station. The report, by senior council Seán Guerin, was published earlier today and presents a number of recommendations, mainly focused on the upcoming inquiry into complaints.
While Guerin was careful to point out that it was not is responsibility to determine the accuracy of McCabe’s complaints, he said there is cause for concern as to the adequacy of the investigations that took place into his claims.
Guerin said McCabe was held in “high regard” by senior members of the force and yet An Garda Síochána had not managed to heed his voice.
Responding to the contents of the report, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin told RTÉ’s News At One that this was a “vindication of the whistleblower” but it is a pity that McCabe was undermined for so long.
“It’s a big lesson for all in authority,” he said. “However difficult and inconvenient, we just gotta listen”.
PULSE
Sinn Féin’s Padraig McLoughlin echoed Martin’s comments, again describing the report as “an immense vindication” of McCabe.
However he said McCabe’s troubles were not over as he still today does not have access to the PULSE system. McLoughlin said McCabe had told him just yesterday that he is still “the subject of ongoing harassment and bullying” and that no one in authority at his station had offered him support.
He called on the government to restore full rights to Sergeant McCabe.
TD Clare Daly also told the News at One that the report made it clear “that the route of this in many ways was the very peculiar relationship that existed” between the former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and now former Minister for Justice Alan Shatter.
She said Shatter “took thinks no further than asking his close friend, the commissioner, what was the story and then taking his word for it”.
Grievously wronged
Director of human rights watchdog the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Mark Kelly, said McCabe “emerges from the pages of the Guerin review as a man grievously wronged”.
Kelly said the independent inquiry should have broad terms of reference to examine the operation in practice of gardaí and the department’s system of management and accountability.
“The government must seize this opportunity to place a human rights based approach at the core of policing in Ireland,” he added.
First published 2.19pm
- Additional reporting Aoife Barry
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