Commissioner timeline: From her ascent as first female chief to her controversial exit
JANUARY 2014: The then Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan appears at the Public Accounts Committee with Nóirín O’Sullivan at his side and labels allegations made by Garda whistleblowers Maurice McCabe and John Wilson ‘disgusting’.
MARCH 2014: Following the public outcry following his remarks, Commissioner Callinan resigns for family reasons.
NOVEMBER 2014: Nóirín O’Sullivan is formally appointed as the first female Garda Commissioner in the State’s history.
JULY 2015: Commissioner O’Sullivan is forced to defend assigning her husband, Detective Superintendent Jim McGowan, to the criminal investigation of an officer accused of leaking information to the media. The officer investigated was Superintendent David Taylor, former head of the Garda Press Office, over suspicions he was the source of a news report that two
children from the Roma community had been taken from their families and not returned until DNA proved who their parents were.
JANUARY 2016: Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe is sent a letter by a Tusla social worker containing false allegations of serious sexual abuse by him. The mistake is based on what Child and Family Agency Tusla later describe as a ‘cut and paste error’.
MAY 2016: Barrister Colm Smyth tells the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation into Garda malpractice that he was instructed to challenge whistleblower Maurice McCabe’s motivation and credibility. Mr Smyth confirms he was instructed to act on the belief that Sgt McCabe made allegations of wrongdoing within the force, not because he was acting on good faith, but because he was motivated by malice. He tells Judge O’Higgins: ‘I mean this isn’t something I am pulling out of the sky, Judge, and I mean I can only act on instructions.’ Opposition TDs call on Ms O’Sullivan to resign. MAY 2016: Commissioner O’Sullivan’s husband, Detective Superintendent Jim McGowan, is promoted to chief superintendent, just weeks before responsibility for such appointments switches to the new independent Policing Authority. OCTOBER 2016: The Garda Commissioner is widely criticised for travelling to California for a policing conference as her own force prepares to go on strike.
NOVEMBER 2016: A mass full-scale garda strike is averted at the eleventh hour.
FEBRUARY 2017: Ms O’Sullivan is accused in the Dáil chamber by Labour leader Brendan Howlin, speaking under parliamentary privilege, of leaking sexual crime allegations against garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe. Superintendent David Taylor said he was instructed to ‘encourage the media to write negatively’ about Sergeant Maurice McCabe. Mr Taylor also said he was told to draw journalists’ attention to an allegation of criminal misconduct made against Sgt McCabe and that this was the root cause of his agenda, to exact revenge against the gardaí.
MARCH 2017: An audit reveals that almost 1million fewer drink-driving breath tests were carried out from 2012 to 2016 than gardaí had previously claimed. The audit also found that 146,000 people were taken to court and 14,700 people were wrongly convicted of motoring offences because of issues with the fixed penalty system. Some of those had not paid fines but were prosecuted even though they had not received the fixed charge notice in the post, while others were taken to court even though they had received the penalty and paid it. Ms O’Sullivan told the Oireachtas Justice Committee that the issue of breath-testing numbers was, ‘at worst deception and at best incompetence.’
APRIL 2017: A motion of no confidence in the Garda Commissioner is defeated in the Dáil.
MAY 2017: It emerges that Commissioner O’Sullivan knew about financial irregularities at the Garda College in Templemore three days earlier than she admitted to the Public Accounts Committee. Fianna Fáil calls for her to resign.
SEPTEMBER 2017: It emerges that up to 1,000 gardaí could face investigation over the fake breathalyser test scandal. Nóirín O’Sullivan announces her resignation.