Callinan rejects GSOC ‘no confidence’ claim

Former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan has rejected dramatic claims made in the Dáil that he asked Garda staff associations to express no confidence in the Garda Ombudsman.

A source close to Mr Callinan told the Irish Examiner he “utterly rejects” the statement by Clare Daly TD.

During a Dáil debate on the Cooke report, the independent deputy stated that after the bugging story broke Mr Callinan contacted the four Garda staff associations and asked them to “issue a public statement that they had no faith and no confidence in GSOC”. Ms Daly said two bodies, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and the Garda Representative Association, did do that.

A source close to the former commissioner said yesterday: “Martin Callinan utterly rejects that proposition. As Garda commissioner he would have met, as per normal, Garda associations to deal with welfare issues concerning their members, but he never, publicly or privately, encouraged or counselled them to make any comment about GSOC.”

A spokesman for the GRA rejected the allegations, stating: “That’s a fantasy. We never received any such call and if we had we would have told the public about it. It’s ridiculous. Furthermore, we did not make any statement expressing no confidence in GSOC.” He said the GRA only called for an independent inquiry and expressed concerns regarding the security of data of members held by GSOC.

At the time, the AGSI called on GSOC chairman Simon O’Brien to “consider his position”. However, AGSI president Tim Galvin said there was no truth to Ms Daly’s claims: “There was no communication between Martin Callinan and us in relation to GSOC.”