Shatter and Callinan ‘should apologise’ – Gay Byrne

Road Safety Authority chairman Gay Byrne has urged Minister for Justice Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan to apologise to the two Garda penalty points whistleblowers.

Speaking on his Lyric FM radio show today Mr Byrne said apologising to retired Garda John Wilson and serving Sergeant Maurice McCabe would be "the right thing to do".

Mr Wilson should be offered his job back and Sgt McCabe promoted, Mr Byrne added.

The whistleblowers who had brought to light the quashing of penalty points by An Garda Síochána had been "grossly wronged" Mr Byrne said.

“I’m talking about John Wilson and Sgt McCabe they have been grossly wronged, they have been ballyragged and contradicted and made to feel badly and the right thing to do now would be to come ont in the open and say: ‘we’re sorry these guys have been wronged and we want to put it right’”.

The public reaction to such an apology would be wonderful, Mr Byrne said, particularly if the men were reinstated and promoted.

Mr Shatter and Mr Callinan should say: “not alone do we apologise most sincerely for everything that has happened to you, not alone do we express our regret and our sorrow and all of those things, but we will do everything in our power to reinstate John Wilson, if that’s what he wants, into the Garda Síochána and as for Sgt McCabe we’ll see to it he gets promotion to the next step up,” Mr Byrne said.