Mick Clifford: Justice department must account for its actions with Garda whistleblower in 2023
Then justice minister Helen McEntee and then Garda commissioner Drew Harris in September, 2023. 'There is no allegation that she acted with nefarious intent, but political accountability also accrues for serious errors, particularly when it has to do with the protection of a discloser.' File picture: Niall Carson/PA
There is a developing trend of ministers for justice finding themselves entangled in a mess created by An Garda Síochána.
This doesn’t involve the incumbent minister attempting to cover up or take sides in any internal dispute. It’s just that the mess can be so wide and deep, it’s difficult to step around.
Helen McEntee is the latest to find herself thus entangled, even though she left the office in 2025.
In the Dáil, Labour’s Alan Kelly laid out what she has to now answer for.
In September 2023, solicitors for Detective Superintendent Brian O’Reilly contacted her office.
After futile attempts to have his protected disclosure addressed internally within the Force, he was now following the law and submitting a protected disclosure to the minister.
Brian O’Reilly was, and is, not a man who had a beef with the organisation he worked for.
He was a cop, through and through, embedded in management, overseeing the Technical Bureau, a vital element of the Force. He just saw stuff he couldn’t stand over, or ignore, and he felt compelled to report on it.
The protected disclosure was extremely serious, containing, among other things, allegations about defective holsters being issued to officers, which could put lives in danger.
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There is also a question as to whether a defective holster contributed to the circumstances that led to the murder of Detective Garda Colm Horkan.
Ms McEntee acted correctly at this point. She referred the matter to the Office of Protected Disclosures Commission (OPDC).
The office was established in January 2023 to determine how protected disclosures, not suitable for internal examination in an organisation, are to be investigated.
The OPDC determined that the appropriate person to investigate would be the secretary general of the Department of Justice, Una McPhillips.
What happened thereafter is now a serious issue for Helen McEntee.
At some point, her office received possession of the file and sent it back to An Garda Síochána.
This should never have happened.
Legally, the matter had been decided by the OPDC, and now the minister’s office was acting without legal authority.
Within An Garda Síochána, the file found its way to the commissioner’s office.
This was also inevitable once it was sent back.
However, the protected disclosure included allegations against the commissioner and it also identified the discloser.
“Deputy McEntee, as minister for justice, thereby revealed Brian O’Reilly’s identity, depriving him of the legal protections he was entitled to and exposing the nature of his allegations,” Alan Kelly told the House.
“In doing so, she acted without legal authority and directly interfered with a serious and significant protected disclosure,” he added.
Ms McEntee denied the charge.
“In my role as minister for justice, at all times and on any matter, I adhered to the law and the structures we have to adhere to under this act and legislation,” she replied.
There is a paper trail that shows which narrative coincides with the facts.
Unless Ms McEntee can show how her version is correct, whether she acted within her legal powers, she has a problem.
There is no allegation that she acted with nefarious intent, but political accountability also accrues for serious errors, particularly when it has to do with the protection of a discloser.
Issues around garda whistleblowers have long been associated with a refusal of management within the organisation to be accountable.
The focus now switches to whether the former minister for justice must be held accountable for her actions.
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