Comment: Disclosures Tribunal judge has no easy task as he compiles report after 13 months of hearings

By Michael Clifford

The Disclosures Tribunal has docked. The final submissions in the last of four modules were heard over the last two days. This module deals with whether or not there was a smear campaign conducted against Sgt Maurice McCabe when he was complaining of malpractice in road policing.

Like most of the myriad statutory inquiries in train, this one is now largely engaged with the historical record rather than an urgent matter of public interest. Despite that, it is no less important. Any finding that there was a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe, or any calumny towards him, would be a devastating reflection of Garda culture.

The allegations centre on a protected disclosure from Supt David Taylor, former head of the Garda press office. He claims he conducted the campaign on the instructions of former commissioner Martin Callinan and his former deputy, Nóirín O’Sullivan.

Taylor’s credibility is central to the module. It has taken a battering, particularly in relation to Ms O’Sullivan whom, it has been strongly alleged, he bore a grudge against.

As a result, that issue was prominent in the submissions. His own counsel, Michael O’Higgins, posed a question at one point: “Is David Taylor a fantasist… is he a person who had a certain amount of information and saw it as an opportunity to damage other people because he had this?” The lawyer went on to say that if so, then he was a lucky fantasist as the tribunal has heard evidence from four independent witnesses that Mr Callinan was spreading muck about Sgt McCabe himself.

Mr O’Higgins then said his client could be termed a whistleblower, who is coming clean on what had been done against Sgt McCabe.

Mr O’Higgins said.

“If he [Supt Taylor] was involved in this activity it is completely indefensible.”

“He is a flawed character but equally he did a brave thing. It could not have been easy to invite Sgt McCabe into his home and say, ‘here is what I have done’. It could not have been easy to step outside the fold of the family and make these allegations.”

David Taylor

Mr O’Higgins said his client’s evidence is capable of being believed.

“Should it be believed? That is a matter for you, factoring all things together,” he told Judge Charleton.

Despite what has emerged about Supt Callinan’s alleged utterances, it’s a different story with Nóirín O’Sullivan.

“The evidence with regard to Nóirín O’Sullivan is thinner, considerably thinner,” Mr O’Higgins said.

“You are left with the assertions by my client that she was aware it was going on.”

That theme was taken up by Shane Murphy, counsel for the former commissioners, in his submission.

“He is not to be believed,” Mr Murphy stated, before going on to dissent the volume of evidence that he says effectively discredits Supt Taylor and his allegations.

He pointed out that the allegations, which have not been proved, have damaged the reputation of An Garda Siochana.

There is, he said a public interest in establishing “how a mere allegation becomes received truth at enormous cost to individuals and society”.

Supt Taylor’s credibility is certainly damaged, and it is now up to Judge Charleton to determine what exactly stacks up and whether there was calumny within the force towards Sergeant McCabe and if so, what form that took, he said.

The final submission came from the sergeant’s counsel, Michael McDowell. He took up the theme of how Mr Callinan had allegedly told others that Sgt McCabe was not to be trusted, and has questions to answer in relation to a child sexual abuse allegation, which is without any foundation at all.

Mr McDowell said the statements allegedly made by Mr Callinan about Sgt McCabe were “made in a short period of time, on the same subject, to the same effect, that they were deeply disparaging of my client and made to a group of people”.

He also made reference to the high number of phones used by the two former commissioners — 10 out of 12 — that were not available to the tribunal.

Towards the end of his submission, Mr McDowell referenced the long journey his client has been through.

“He doesn’t come here as a plaster saint or say that he’s got everything right. He has never seen himself in that light, but he is entitled to be vindicated as a man who has been truthful not only in the O’Higgins commission but here and well motivated.”

Maurice McCabe

At the conclusion, Judge Charleton thanked everybody from the tribunal staff, legal teams, media and public who had attended. He rose for the last time in this tribunal at 4.45pm.

It is now up to him to determine what exactly stacks up and whether there was calumny within the force towards Sgt McCabe and if so, what form that took. The task will not be easy.

His report will certainly be eagerly awaited by those who have passed through George’s Hall in Dublin Castle for the hearings which now stretch back over 13 months.

“At the end of this I’m hoping to produce a report sometime in October,” he said, and then he was gone.