Garda crisis: Meeting meaning depends on lead actors’ viewpoints

It was, as outspoken TD Mick Wallace joked darkly, “one for the mantelpiece”.

At the end of a combative meeting between under-fire Garda Commissioner Noirin O Sullivan, the politician-cum-garda arch critic and his Oireachtas justice committee colleagues were asked to step outside for a formal photo to mark the visit of their latest guest.

Despite being the bane of each others’ lives for the best part of two years due to whistleblower revelations, the high-profile pair stood together as they smiled politely for the cameras.

But while the moment allowed a semblance of peace to descend on the bloodied battleground of the committee room floor which had for three hours seen TDs’ lobbed grenades bounce off the commissioner’s legal brick wall, it also underlined a central point to the ongoing crisis.

Both sides of the whistle-blower controversy now have a photo to remember the moment the irresistible force of Mr Wallace met the immovable object of the commissioner. The only issue that differs is the frame they put around the evidence of what really happened.

Throughout yesterday’s meeting, ostensibly about updating politicians on Garda operations, Ms O’Sullivan was tackled over her handling of whistle-blowers and unproven claims of campaigns against them.

And every time the scandal was raised, she protested her innocence, before adding she is “not privy to, nor would I approve, nor condone” any targeting of gardaí who speak out.

Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Jim O Callaghan was first out of the block, asking directly if she was “aware of any effort” to victimise whistleblowers, while Sinn Féin Jonathan O Brien asked if she should resign, but it was always Mick Wallace and Clare Daly’s show.

Ms Daly went for the jugular, demanding the commissioner clarify that if she had no knowledge of campaigns, would she accept colleagues have been “going behind your back” to the extent her position is “undermined”, and asked if whistle-blowers are under surveillance.

Mr Wallace claimed the problems are “much as they were” when retired commissioner Martin Callinan labelled whistleblower actions “disgusting” and accusing Ms O Sullivan of promoting anti-whistleblower gardaí, in addition to separate nepotism claims about her husband and bridesmaid.

Mick Wallace

Other than the last point — Ms O’Sullivan reveled in noting she had no bridesmaid — the commissioner defended herself by providing small, general details but noting she cannot discuss protected disclosure claims.

No knowledge of alleged campaigns. Not privy to information. And not going anywhere, she said, before later stating a system’s culture comes from “the tone at the top”.

For Mick Wallace, the meeting ended with yet more proof nothing has changed in the gardaí.

For Nóirín O’Sullivan, the same meeting ended with yet more proof politicians are wrongly rushing to judge.

As they posed beside each other after the stand-off, the different images of the same event undoubtedly played on their minds. The photo is, as Mick Wallace opined, “one for the mantelpiece”. But, as ever, its meaning is entirely dependent on the frame it is placed within.