Howlin and Higgins criticised in report

THE tribunal has criticised two prominent politicians for the manner in which they handled unverified allegations against senior gardaí.

But the politicians have dismissed the criticism, saying their actions led to the Garda corruption in Donegal being exposed.

In June 2000, Fine Gael TD Jim Higgins received faxes and Labour TD Brendan Howlin received phone calls in which it was claimed that assistant commissioners Kevin Carty and Tony Hickey had been involved with Detective Sergeant John White in corruption. The phone calls were based on information contained in the faxes.

Mr Justice Morris found the faxes were full of “lies, rumours and half-truths”, and that there was no evidence to back up the allegations.

He found that the faxes were written by Frank McBrearty Snr and a close friend, PJ Togher, a former garda.

Mr McBrearty arranged for Mr Higgins to receive the faxes in the hope of bringing about a public inquiry.

Martin Giblin, a barrister who had represented Mr McBrearty, also received the faxes, and subsequently contacted Mr Howlin.

The two politicians then went to the Justice Minister with the information.

Mr Justice Morris said that while both politicians had acted in good faith, they should have returned to their sources and “pressed them for further information”.

“The tribunal is concerned that public representatives should receive and act upon serious and sensational allegations against senior garda officers without pressing their sources for information or evidence,” he said.

But the politicians disagreed with the criticism.

Mr Higgins, now an MEP, said: “I disagree with the findings of the tribunal that Brendan Howlin and I had in any way acted irresponsibly.

“Having discussed the matter of the information that had come into our possession from previously reliable sources, we jointly decided that rather than going into the Dáil and airing the matter publicly under Dáil privilege, the proper course of action was to bring the material privately to the attention of the then minister for justice.”

Mr Howlin echoed those comments, saying neither he nor Mr Higgins would have been in a position to investigate the allegations themselves.

“The fact is that were it not for the action taken by myself and the then Deputy Jim Higgins, the Morris tribunal would never have been established.”