Diary ‘shows Nóirín could not have been at meeting’

DIARY records show that Nóirín O’Sullivan was in London on the day that a senior Garda HR executive claimed she attended a meeting – after which he was allegedly told the force was ‘going after’ Sergeant Maurice McCabe at the O’Higgins Commission.

John Barrett, the executive director of human resources with An Garda Síochána, told the Charleton Tribunal yesterday that he had a meeting with senior Garda civil servant Cyril Dunne and the then garda commissioner, Ms O’Sullivan.

He said Mr Dunne then asked him to stay behind and told him: ‘We are going after him (McCabe) in the commission.’

Mr Barrett said he believed that this meeting happened on May 13, 2015, the day before the O’Higgins Whistleblower: Sgt McCabe Commission sat for the first time to hear evidence.

Mr Barrett admitted that he did not make a note of this at the time, which he said he regretted in hindsight.

He accepted that there was confusion in that diary records showed that Ms O’Sullivan was in London on this date.

Conor Dignam, representing Ms O’Sullivan, said: ‘That’s not confusion, Mr Barrett. You say a meeting took place that Nóirín O’Sullivan could not have been at.’ Mr Barrett replied: ‘I understand the conflict.’

In its current module, the Charleton Tribunal is examining whether unjustified grounds were inappropriately relied upon by former commissioner O’Sullivan to discredit whistleblower Sgt McCabe at the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation.

The commission, which sat in 2015, investigated complaints made by Sgt McCabe about certain policing matters and serious allegations against senior officers, including the former commissioner Martin Callinan.

Mr Barrett said he had expected that Mr Dunne would also recall the meeting. However, Mr Dunne denies ever making the alleged comment to Mr Barrett.

Tribunal barrister Diarmaid McGuinness said Mr Barrett had arrived at May 13 as the likely date of the meeting by ‘a process of exclusion’.

The tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Peter Charleton, said that in Mr Barrett’s initial correspondence to the tribunal in April 2017, he had not given a date for the meeting with Mr Dunne.

He said that May 13, 2015 ‘happened to be a very significant date’. The O’Higgins Commission held its first hearings the following day.

Questioned by Michael McDowell SC, on behalf of Sgt McCabe, Mr Barrett said he had not been asked by any investigator at any point about the meeting date until he began his evidence on Thursday of this week.

Asked if the conversation had taken place at all, Mr Barrett said: ‘It is a very clear recollection of a statement made by my boss to me. It jarred with the work that essentially was under way for three months in my office to try and build a bridge to create a new engagement with Sgt McCabe.

‘The work at that point in May was, in my opinion, beginning to show imminent results.

‘I was therefore surprised this would be shared with me.’

Mr Barrett said he had a good relationship with Mr Dunne, who had hired him.

He said he had spoken with Chief Superintendent Tony McLoughlin about what Mr Dunne had said.

Mr Dignam, on behalf of Ms O’Sullivan, said Mr Barrett had not made a record of Mr Dunne’s alleged comment in detailed minutes taken during meetings with Sgt McCabe in 2015 and 2016.

Mr Barrett said he regretted not making a comprehensive note of Mr Dunne’s comments, and if he could relive the events, he would ‘protested more formally’.

‘I understand the conflict’