Micheál Martin: Government hasn’t grasped seriousness of the situation

WHEN the front page of a Sunday newspaper announced over a week ago that the Garda Siochána Ombudsman Commission has been under hi-tech surveillance I, like many people, was taken aback.

My colleague Niall Collins issued a statement that day calling for clarification from the minister on what was going on, had GSOC been bugged, and who was responsible.

We made this statement from the perspective of a political party that places great trust and support in our gardaí and from the position that any threat to public confidence in our justice system needs to be understood and faced down aggressively. We also made the statement in full expectation that the Government would naturally share our concern and that getting to the bottom of the claims would be its primary objective.

What followed however, was an extraordinary 10 day long effort on behalf of the Government, led by the Taoiseach and minister for justice, to undermine GSOC and misdirect and confuse the public. It took many different forms, from a false claim that GSOC had acted illegally in not informing the minister, to summoning the (independent) GSOC chairman to the Department of Justice for cross examination.

Along the way, we heard the controversy dismissed as ‘a bottle of smoke’ and watched as various commentators sought to explain away the claims and dismiss legitimate concerns.

On Tuesday afternoon, we thought that perhaps the penny had dropped in Government circles about the seriousness of the situation when the Taoiseach announced that they had climbed down on the need for external independent examination and were appointing a retired High Court judge to investigate the whole affair.

But this brief glimmer of hope was quickly snubbed out when it became clear that it was to be only a paper-based exercise with no extra investigation and with terms of reference set by the minister for justice.

We then quickly returned to earlier form when the minister got up in the Dáil some hours later and announced that based on further information he had received, there was no evidence of bugging.

This context of a minister and Government more determined to manage problems than get to the bottom of them is important to understand the significance of a related and potentially even more serious controversy. And that is the treatment of Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe.

Last week, I read into the record of Dáil Éireann transcript excerpts of a conversation between Maurice McCabe and the Garda Confidential Recipient. In this transcript, the Garda Confidential Recipient warns the whistleblower that he needs to be careful in what he is doing and that if the minister “thinks you’re screwing him, you’re finished”.

This amazing revelation had been made earlier by Mick Wallace TD and the Government had simply ignored him, again hoping that the problem would simply go away.

Earlier still, when Maurice McCabe was working steadily behind the scenes, following procedures, reporting to line management, trying to get the minister interested and trying to get the Taoiseach interested, Alan Shatter went further than seeking to dismiss his concerns.

In fact, he followed the same pattern of seeking to undermine the messenger, claiming that Maurice McCabe had failed to cooperate with an internal investigation. In fact, Maurice McCabe had never even been granted an interview about the very serious claims of malpractice that he had worked so hard to bring to the attention of those in authority.

YESTERDAY, when I again brought up the treatment of Maurice McCabe in Leaders’ Questions, the Taoiseach announced that the Garda Confidential Whistleblower had been relieved of his duties.

Neither I nor my party take any satisfaction in the departure of this individual. And clearly Mr Shatter believes that by firing his colleague, he can move the issue on and distract from the core issues.

He is absolutely wrong in this belief. The allegations being made by Maurice McCabe are of the utmost seriousness and go to the heart of how we run our justice system. His treatment by Alan Shatter’s regime goes to the very heart of this Government’s attitude to whistleblowers and its commitment to transparency.

The Taoiseach asked me to present him with any evidence I have of the malpractice I am deeply concerned about. I have now done that.

How the Taoiseach proceeds and how he now deals with his minister for justice will be an even clearer indication of how seriously the Government takes the extraordinary events of the last fortnight.

Micheál Martin is the leader of Fianna Fáil.