TD claims he and whistleblower were under Garda surveillance

Independent TD Luke Ming Flanagan claimed he and a Garda whistleblower were put under Garda surveillance yesterday when they went to the offices of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

He told the Dáil they went to the GSOC with “a serious allegation of corruption within the national drugs squad”, but he gave no details of the claim.

In his first contribution to the House on Leaders’ Questions, Mr Flanagan said a new whistleblower, who is a serving garda, was “terrified” that members of An Garda serving with the commission “could somehow leak this information and as a result evidence would be tampered with”.

The TD said he and former Garda whistleblower John Wilson went with the allegations to the GSOC offices and were in a cafe close by when they noticed an unmarked Garda car.

'Terrified'
Mr Flanagan said Mr Wilson left the cafe to establish what was going on, walked down the road and the car followed him. He said the whistleblower, who was "terrified" to come forward, was left "quivering" after yesterday's surveillance.

He asked what the Taoiseach was doing about this, when there was nowhere for whistleblowers to go but to politicians.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he had no information about the allegations but offered to deal with them with “confidentiality” if Mr Flanagan wanted to give him the documentation he had.

However, the Independent TD accused Mr Kenny of making a joke about the issue after the Taoiseach said the car might not have had him under surveillance or “maybe they thought there was somebody dealing”. Mr Flanagan claimed: “you’re a disgrace”.

But the Taoiseach rejected the claim. He said he would deal with the allegations if Mr Flanagan proffered them and insisted whistleblowers were protected under legislation.

Mr Kenny said the Guerin and Cooke reports on Garda controversies were awaited, and these were matters “of the greatest importance”.

Mr Flanagan said the new whistleblower was afraid to come forward for obvious reasons given that Mr Wilson, who was in the public gallery for Leaders’ Questions “had a rat hung on his door for doing the right thing”.

Bigger issue
He said the bigger issue was not the individual case "but the fact that no one can have confidence in GSOC so long as serving members of An Garda Síochána are operating within it".

Mr Kenny said when the reports on the Garda controversies were published they would be debated and he would await their recommendations.

Later, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the Taoiseach might not have realised he had made a remark which could be misconstrued, relating to “somebody dealing”, and suggested it be withdrawn.

Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty also referred to the issue, and Mr Kenny said “I withdraw any remark that might have given a perception of a joking nature”.

He respected “absolutely the right of people to come forward with information about wrongdoing”.