Championing whistleblowers: Silence on wrongdoing is collusion

IT IS possible to argue that not one Government minister has been as influential in their particular fiefdom as garda whistleblowers Maurice McCabe and John Wilson have been in our police force. 

No Dáil backbencher, on the Government or Opposition side, has instigated even a fraction of the reform these two men provoked by doing no more than telling the truth and having the strength of character not to be cowed by those who would silence them because they feared their misuse of power would be exposed.

The appointment of Sergeant McCabe to lead the traffic unit in Mullingar suggests that a culture light years away from the one that gave former Commissioner Martin Callinan the confidence to describe the whistleblowers as “disgusting” to an Oireachtas committee has prevailed.