Former RSA chief was warned about dealings with whistleblowers

The former head of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has said he was warned by gardaí that he needed to be "careful" in his dealings with whistleblowers during the penalty points controversy.

Noel Brett was chief executive of the RSA in 2013 when reports surfaced of the improper cancellation of penalty points by some gardaí, with a 2014 Garda inspectorate report into the topic ultimately concluding that there were "consistent and widespread breaches of policy".

In 2013 Mr Brett publicly called on the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission to examine allegations being promulgated by a handful of whistleblowers including Sgt Maurice McCabe, and an inquiry was later established.

Sources close to Sgt McCabe were said to have been in contact with Mr Brett during the scandal, and the former RSA head has now released a statement acknowledging that he was informally told to be careful about his contact with whistleblowers.

It comes amid reports that anonymous senior members of An Garda Síochána said it was “likely” that conversations from Mr Brett’s phone were intercepted at the height of the controversy, although no definitive evidence was every produced to back up the claims.

According to RTÉ's This Week programme, a member of the force said to have worked closely with successive commissioners issued the warning to Mr Brett as those within Garda headquarters sought to crack down on media leaks concerning the inappropriate cancellation of penalty points.

‘Disgusting’

Much of the story was played out through speeches made under Dáil privilege, and former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan later described the behaviour of whistleblowers as "disgusting" prior to his retirement in 2014.

However, Mr Brett has sought to play down the severity of phone tapping allegations, saying that he did not think this was happening.

“Whilst it may have been informally suggested that I needed to be careful in my interactions with whistleblowers when I was working as CEO of the RSA, I am totally satisfied that my telephone was not intercepted and I did not deem it necessary to change my phone number, phone provider or telephone usage behaviour,” he said.

Mr Brett left the RSA at the end of 2013 and is now chief executive of the Irish Banking and Payments Federation, and sits on the board of the Policing Authority.