Michael Clifford takes a look back over the year that was.

The Justice Minister wants the state to reach an early settlement with Maurice McCabe.

Here are all the latest headlines this lunchtime...

Michael Clifford Taxpayers will probably foot the bill for ‘campaign of calumny’ against Maurice McCabe, writes Michael Clifford.

Superintendent Taylor had been suspended from the force in the wake of the publication of the Disclosures Tribunal report.

Sergeant Maurice McCabe would have kept working in An Garda Síochána but believed he couldn’t go back after everything that had happened to him, his solicitor said yesterday.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin has called for sanctions to be imposed on high-ranking gardaí found to have been involved in repeated attacks on whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.

Opposition calls that forced the resignations of former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald and ex-Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan were “bang out of order,” says Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

Mr Justice Charleton sets out seven obligations for gardaí in his report that, if implemented, could see postive change in the force, according to Cormac O’Keeffe.

Reporting the Taylor/McCabe disclosures was in the public interest, writes Michael Clifford.

The Policing Authority says it will consider very carefully how it selects senior officers following the third report into the Disclosures Tribunal yesterday.

Even in a post-truth, post-shame world, even in a world where alternative facts are trotted out as regularly as “unprecedented” October storms threaten homes and property, the conclusion reached by Mr Justice Peter Charleton that, despite his repeated denials, former garda commissioner Martin Callinan told a Dáil deputy in early 2014 that whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe had sexually abused his family is deeply shocking. The allegation, and that is a very generous use of vocabulary, was of course false.

The 406-page report released by Justice Peter Charleton contains some strong language, including that whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe was "repulsively denigrated for being no more than a good citizen and police officer".

When questioned last Monday by RTÉ over her startling claim about Ms Guerin, Gemma refused to elaborate, writes Michael Clifford

Drew Harris is quietly spoken. That much has been made clear by people close to him, writes Cormac O'Keeffe

With the weights of issues facing the force, and its reluctance to accept outside influence, the former PSNI officer has a tough job ahead, says Cormac O’Keeffe

The PSNI police chief appointed as the next Garda commissioner said his focus would be on protecting the vulnerable and keeping people “on the island of Ireland” safe.

There is a weariness about everything around the Maurice McCabe story at this stage, but events coming to a conclusion in Dublin Castle are worthy of serious attention. Recent revelations have brought into sharp focus matters of great import to both policing and the media in this country.

The Disclosures Tribunal is prone to getting blown off course on a not infrequent basis, writes Michael Clifford

Paul Reynolds wasn’t fed any scurrilous stuff about Sergeant Maurice McCabe, he told the Disclosures Tribunal yesterday, writes Michael Clifford.

RTÉ crime correspondent Paul Reynolds has told the Charleton tribunal his record speaks for itself in reporting on An Garda Síochána.

Paul Williams was surprised to hear his name brought up in a Dáil debate about the quashing of penalty points. This was in late 2013, the Disclosures Tribunal heard yesterday.

Two more crime correspondents yesterday told the Disclosures Tribunal that they were never briefed negatively by any gardaí about Sergeant Maurice McCabe.

A journalist has told the Charleton Tribunal she would not consider sources who provided factual statements about a Garda investigation into allegations against Sgt Maurice McCabe to be smearing the sergeant.

An awful lot of people have been telling lies under oath at the Disclosures Tribunal. That’s according to the chairman of the inquiry, Judge Peter Charleton.

In any good whodunnit, the search for the smoking gun becomes the focal point.

A Daily Mail journalist has told the Charleton Tribunal that she believed a colleague who allegedly told her a garda whistleblower was a child abuser was “being used” by somebody.

Former Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has told the Charleton Tribunal she “did not feel comfortable” in the presence of former garda press officer Superintendent David Taylor, and at “times he appeared to be a divisive individual”.

Irish Independent editor Fionnán Sheahan told his colleague Anne Harris that garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe was a paedophile, the Charleton tribunal has been told.

Former Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan has said she never sought to influence RTÉ coverage of the O’Higgins report into complaints from whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe, adding: “I have no idea how anybody could come to that conclusion.”

Nóirín O’Sullivan didn’t hear all the bad stuff that was going around about Maurice McCabe a few years back. She didn’t speak to anybody about it either.

As a member of An Garda Síochána, Maurice McCabe was entitled to know he was being accused of these offences, writes Michael Clifford

No public inquiry reaching into the dark recesses of Irish life is complete without a shady figure stepping into the light to seek redemption. So it went in the Planning Tribunal. So it goes now with the Disclosures Tribunal.

Former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan has told the Disclosures Tribunal that his use of the word “disgusting” before a public accounts committee hearing was “isolated and misconstrued” in media reports.

None of the journalists whom former Garda press officer Supt David Taylor says were told lies in an effort to discredit whistleblower Maurice McCabe have backed up those claims.

The Disclosures Tribunal was told yesterday that Supt Dave Taylor is following proceedings on Twitter. #Hello Dave.

These are strange days indeed for An Garda Síochána, and things got a little stranger yesterday in Dublin Castle.

Sometimes, a study or report is important, not in what’s being said, but for who’s saying it, writes Michael Clifford

Twelve of fifteen mobile phones belonging to senior garda officers are missing and cannot be provided to the Charleton Tribunal.

The Disclosures Tribunal is on the home stretch, but there’s no knowing how long it might take to arrive, writes Michael Clifford.

“Bizarre” and “astonishing” are words not often pulled from the judicial lexicon but both got an outing at the Disclosures Tribunal yesterday.

Former communications minister Pat Rabbitte has said his retired garda driver told him of rumours on the Garda “grapevine” about Maurice McCabe, including that he could not be trusted with children.

The former head of the Department of Justice denies it was inappropriate that the ex-Garda commissioner met a Dáil committee chairman to argue against a whistleblower giving evidence.

The State’s financial watchdog has said former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan made comments about Sergeant Maurice McCabe along the lines that he was “not to be trusted” and had questions to answer over alleged “sexual offences”.