Dáil committee to call ex-confidential Garda recipient Connolly
Fianna Fáil TD and committee member Niall Collins said last night Mr Connolly would be invited to appear after the current inquiry over whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe’s claims in the force was finished.
A number of controversial comments were allegedly made by Mr Connolly to Sgt McCabe, which resulted in the recipient’s recent dismissal.
Mr Connolly released a statement this week in which he claimed his name had been “impugned” by TDs speaking about him.
However, he also did not deny that he had allegedly told Sgt McCabe that if “Shatter [the justice minister] thinks you’re screwing him, you’re finished”.
Mr Collins said the confidante would be asked to make a submission to the committee before the Guerin inquiry is finished but that any appearance would be after the probe.
Mr Collins also claimed in the Dáil he had been informed that Garda applicants were getting others to sit their online aptitude tests. He had passed this allegation to Mr Shatter this week, he said, adding: “People who are the applicants are getting other people to sit in and do the online exam.”
Wexford TD Mick Wallace said a garda whistleblower had claimed to Mr Shatter that Travellers, including a 16-day-old baby, were “casually” being categorised as criminals on the Garda Pulse system. He asked that the probe into Sgt McCabe’s claims be extended to include allegations Travellers were being casually categorised on Pulse as criminals.
