Whistleblowers penalised and purged at the highest levels of An Garda Síochána
Whistleblowers penalised and purged at the highest levels of An Garda Síochána - The Labour Party
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Justice Minister took three attempts to provide a straight answer about knowledge of defective Garda gun holsters
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Serious questions over integrity, accountability and whistleblower protections within An Garda Síochána
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Labour Party has consistently raised issue for years and no answers forthcoming
Questioning the Taoiseach during Leaders’ Questions today, Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik TD expressed deep concern at what she described as institutional failures at the heart of An Garda Síochana.
An RTÉ Investigates programme will tonight expose the experiences of senior whistleblowers within the force who have been silenced, penalised and even purged after raising serious issues relating in particular to bad firearms practices within the force.
Deputy Bacik said that there are serious questions for the current Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan and former Minister for Justice Helen McEntee over the Department of Justice response to concerns about firearms practices and about accountability within An Garda Síochána.
Deputy Bacik said:
“As the RTÉ Investigates programme will show tonight, the Protected Disclosure system established in the wake of the treatment of Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe has, under successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments, failed those who have sought to rely upon it.
“Protected disclosures fell, or were pushed, between gaps in the statutory mechanisms intended to protect the integrity of the police.
“Serious concerns were raised, yet some were ignored, and in deeply disturbing cases, appear to have been removed from the institutional system designed to protect those who raised them.
“Many of these concerns relate to serious failings in Garda firearm practices, including issues surrounding defective holsters. Those concerns take on an even greater significance given the capital murder of Detective Colm Horkan in June 2020, and the serious injury to another Garda just days before.
“These concerns were allowed to persist for far too long. Garda personnel who had the courage to raise them put their own careers at risk in an effort to ensure that serious issues were properly investigated.
“Even more disturbing is what happened to those tasked with handling protected disclosures. They were sidelined, their offices closed and they ultimately found themselves forced to blow the whistle themselves.
“This is kafkaesque, it is GUBU-esuqe, and it has enormous consequences. It raises fundamental questions about the integrity of the systems designed to protect Garda whistleblowers.
“It also has consequences for the integrity of An Garda Síochána, for public confidence and for the safety of Gardaí and the public. The Taoiseach’s failure to engage effectively with the issues of accountability at a Ministerial and Departmental level in the Dáil today begs questions of its own.
“It’s simply not credible for the Taoiseach, who is always well briefed ahead of Leaders’ Questions about any topical issues or stories in the media, to say on the floor of the Dáil that he has no idea about the allegations made in a programme due to be aired tonight, many of which had already been flagged and placed in the public domain by RTÉ over recent days.”