Whistleblower Maurice McCabe joins penalty points inquiry unit

Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe is to be seconded to the Garda unit investigating his allegations of continued abuses of the penalty points system.

A report he compiled for interim Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan and presented to her office two weeks ago has suggested the new points termination system is being abused at almost the same rate as the old system.

Controversy emerged two years ago when Sgt McCabe first brought his concerns about penalty point cancellations to the attention of Garda management and senior politicians. The new allegations made by Sgt McCabe suggest that several hundred penalty points are continuing to be terminated every month by members of the force.

This is despite the discretion individual Garda members once enjoyed to cancel points having been abolished in mid-June in favour of centralising the decision-making to one office, where just three staff process termination requests.

However, included in the new claims is an assertion that terminations by other members of the force has continued.

The Irish Times understands Sgt McCabe has agreed to join the Garda's Professional Standards Unit for at least a week, starting tomorrow.

Sources said he had been asked to join the unit so he could bring members through the cases he believes represent continued abuses of the system.

Upholding standards

The arrangement where a whistleblower is effectively being seconded to the unit charged with upholding professional standards is unprecedented in the Garda.

The commissioner and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald cautioned yesterday against jumping to conclusions and said the fresh allegations had not been tested.

Ms Fitzgerald said it would be “jumping to very wide conclusions” to suggest the force was out of control or undisciplined because the same allegations about penalty points have now emerged after the policing and political scandals that similar allegations caused last year and earlier this year.

As well as the audit into the fresh claims being conducted by the Professional Standards Unit, which Sgt McCabe will now directly assist, the allegations were also passed to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. It has added them to its existing investigation into the wider penalty points controversy.

Separately, the Garda Inspectorate is also finalising another report into the wider debacle.

Sgt McCabe met a delegation representing the interim commissioner in Dublin for over two hours yesterday.

The meeting took place at the Ashtown Gate office block close to Garda Headquarters, Phoenix Park. The delegation was led by assistant commissioner John Twomey, who is in charge of traffic enforcement, and included senior members of the standards unit.

Points terminated

Sources said the meeting was “very constructive”, with Sgt McCabe outlining how he believed gardaí were continuing to have penalty points terminated by other members of the force for family and friends, based on bogus excuses for their speeding and other offences.

He has alleged Garda members who had previously used the Pulse system to cancel penalty points incurred by family and friends were engaging in the same abuse under the new procedures.

Senior sources said Sgt McCabe has alleged people who had points terminated on several occasions before the practice was highlighted last year had enjoyed further terminations since the reforms were introduced in June.