Commissioner ‘was advised to praise whistleblowers’

FORMER Garda commissioner Martin Callinan was advised to praise the role of whistleblowers on a number of occasions before his appearance at the Public Accounts Committee – at which he described their actions as ‘disgusting’, the Disclosures Tribunal has heard. Andrew McLindon, the civilian director of communications for An Garda Síochána, said he was ‘shocked, surprised and concerned’ when he heard the thencommissioner describe the actions of the whistleblowers in such terms. Mr McLindon said his task was to prepare Mr Callinan for questions he might face at the PAC hearing on January 23, 2014, and to draft his opening statement. The tribunal heard six ‘pre-PAC’ meetings had been held, which were attended by Mr Callinan, the then Deputy Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, and others. Mr McLindon went to four of these. He agreed he and others close to Mr Callinan suggested he praise the role of whistleblowers on a number of occasions. Asked about Mr Callinan’s ‘disgusting’ remark, Mr McLindon said: ‘We never discussed at the meetings that that kind of approach would be taken to whistleblowers. I also felt it was too strong a term, or language, to use.’ Mr McLindon’s notes showed the 2006 allegation of sexual abuse made against whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe was raised in one of those January meetings. He agreed that the issue of motivation of the whistleblowers had been raised, and said he had been trying to prepare Mr Callinan for all potential angles and ‘left-field questions’. He said that on the day after the PAC hearing, Mr Callinan told him and other senior managers that he had an opportunity to meet PAC chairman John McGuinness, to discuss whether Sgt McCabe should appear before the committee. He was not told by the commissioner what transpired at the meeting in a car park outside Bewley’s Hotel, the tribunal heard. Mr McGuinness, a Fianna Fáil TD, has told the tribunal that Mr Callinan alleged to him that Sgt McCabe had sexually abused his own children and was not to be trusted. Mr McLindon also said Supt David Taylor – the press officer when he took up his own post in 2013 – did not, as Supt Taylor has claimed to the tribunal, tell Mr McLindon about Mr Callinan’s instructions to brief the media negatively about Sgt McCabe. Mr McLindon said he would have been ‘appalled’ and ‘highly concerned’ if he knew the head of the organisation he had only recently joined was briefing against another member, using historic allegations of sexual abuse to explain Sgt McCabe’s disillusionment with the force. The tribunal continues on Monday.