Money lost ‘would have paid for 300 cars’ hears PAC

The amount of money lost through terminated penalty point notices over the last few years was enough to have fully kitted out an extra three hundred patrol cars for the force, the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee heard.

Under three hours of intense questioning, Garda Maurice McCabe, explained to the committee how penalty points notices were routinely terminated, and was particularly clear on the matter of repeat offenders getting notices terminated.

Committee members, including those who had reservations about whether it should be investigating the matter, praised Garda McCabe for coming forward and all shook his hand at the end of proceedings.

The extent of his evidence is understood to have shown a far greater problem than was illustrated in the internal Garda report published last year. He pointed out that since the publications of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report last September, the number of terminations under “medical emergencies” had fallen dramatically.

When asked about his standing with colleagues, he said that he had received a huge volume of support through texts in recent days.

He also said that the PAC meeting was the fist time he had been interviewed since making his allegations known to the office of the Taoiseach in Jul 2012. Previously, he had used the office of the confidential recipient, but by then had lost faith in its functioning.

After the meeting, PAC chairman John McGuinness said his evidence gave a “unique insight” into the way the fixed charge system worked which “will help the committee as it examines the C&AG report on this matter.”

TDs were divided on the usefulness of the exercise, with some saying that while they were happy to hear his evidence, there was “nothing new” to what had already being examined by the C&AG.

The meeting concluded with a proposal by Independent TD, Shane Ross, that the transcript should be made public. It was agreed this should be referred to Garda McCabe himself to make a decision based on his own legal advice. Any request for the information would then be considered by the committee.

“My reaction is that we shouldn’t rush at end to publish the transcripts. Because if you do start hearing whistleblowers, you do have a responsibility to protect them,” one TD said.

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said it is still her “strong view” that the transcript should be made public, after consultation with Garda McCabe

Transparency International Ireland last night urged the garda commissioner to withdraw his earlier threat of disciplinary action against Garda McCabe. It welcomed his appearance before the PAC, saying his sole reason was to help it with its inquiries and “not to point fingers or level baseless accusations at anyone.”

Chief executive, John Devitt, said Garda McCabe and retired garda, John Wilson “deserve great credit” for bringing the issue to public attention, and urged Mr Callinan to withdraw his “unhelpful comments” when he said their actions were “disgusting”.