Brendan Howlin says Dáil claims were not ‘idle chat or pub gossip’

Labour leader Brendan Howlin has hit back at critics of his Dáil claim that the Garda commissioner may have spread allegations of sexual crimes against a whistleblower, insisting it was “credible” and “not pub gossip”.

He revealed yesterday that he had spoken to Sgt Maurice McCabe, the whistleblower at the centre of claims, who he said thanked him for his intervention.

Mr Howlin used Dáil privilege on Wednesday when he said a journalist told him they had “direct knowledge” of calls made by Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan to journalists in which she is said to have made “very serious allegations of sexual crimes” against Sgt McCabe.