Fitzgerald refuses to be drawn on O’Higgins leaks

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has said it would be inappropriate for her to comment on transcripts allegedly leaked from the O'Higgins Commission.

The Tánaiste told Independents4Change TD Mick Wallace that while documents and evidence from the commission investigating allegations of Garda misconduct were deposited with her as Minister for Justice, "there was no question of my having authority to access that evidence or those documents".

The “purpose of depositing documentation with the relevant Minister is for safeguarding it”, she said.

She added that they could not take an “a la carte” approach to the commission’s findings.

Mr Wallace had asked in the Dáil if she had examined the full transcripts and questioned how she could leave Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan in place when serious questions remained unanswered.

The Wexford TD claimed that Garda Supt Noel Cunningham had said "Nóirín has thrown me under the bus", when he heard the Commissioner had referred an incident with Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe, to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSoc).

Mr Wallace said the Minister knew that the Commissioner had questioned the motivation, credibility and integrity of Sgt McCabe. “Her legal team claimed that at a meeting with a superintendent and another garda Sgt McCabe had behaved in such a manner.”

Recording

When the whistleblower’ s legal team asked the Commissioner’s legal team to check if the Commissioner wanted to stick with that story, the response was “right the way through”.

When Sgt McCabe produced a recording of the encounter “the whole thing was dropped”.

He asked “if the Garda Commissioner had nothing to do with the fabrication of the contents of what was said at the Mullingar meeting, why did she not act against the two gardaí in question?”

He added that “the Minister might be interested to know that . . . [when] Noel Cunningham heard that the Commissioner had referred the issue to GSoc, he said ‘Nóirín has thrown me under the bus’.”

Ms Fitzgerald said however that “unlike Deputy Wallace, I believe it is important that we follow the procedures outlined and that is what I have done”.

The Minister said she did not have access to the details of all that happened at the commission “and neither does the Deputy”.

She said it was entirely a matter for Mr Justice O’Higgins to choose what to include in his report. “He did not make criticisms of the kind being made by Deputy Wallace.”

She said the Government fully accepted the commission’s findings. “I do not believe that when this House establishes commissions of investigation we can adopt an a la carte approach to their findings.”