THE TRIBUNAL INVESTIGATING claims that senior gardai launched a smear campaign against whistleblower Maurice McCabe will hear from its first witnesses today.

The first witnesses will be those from the HSE, Tusla, and the Rian Counselling service.

Back in February, it emerged that Tusla sent gardaí a file that contained false allegations of sexual abuse against Sergeant Maurice McCabe.

It has emerged that the allegation of sexual abuse on a young woman was reported to Tusla by a counsellor in 2013. The counsellor nine months later contacted the agency to say she made “an administrative error” – she had accidentally pasted the line into her report.

The tribunal will examine if that admin error was a genuine mistake.

In November, the Tribunal will look into what may have been a brief to Garda Press Office Superintendent David Taylor to disseminate information to journalists from then-deputy Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.

Read: Setting the tone: Justice Charleton takes no prisoners as Disclosures Tribunal sits for first time

Read: Charleton: ‘Every lie told to this Tribunal will be a waste of what ordinary men and women have paid for’