Eilis O’Hanlon on why real whistleblowers are badly hit by ‘nonsense’

Populist deputies who present unproven allegations as fact deserve reproach when wrong, writes Eilis O’Hanlon

NOT all allegations are equally true. Some are not even true at all. The case of Garda Keith Harrison offers one extraordinary example. He alleged that he faced a campaign of harassment over five years after arresting a fellow officer for drink-driving in 2009. This included his partner, Marisa Simms, purportedly being coerced into making a complaint against him, and that in turn being used by gardai to pressure social workers at child and family agency Tusla into opening a file. These were serious charges to level.

His case was taken up by a number of opposition TDs, and he asked that his case be considered alongside that of Maurice McCabe at the Disclosures Tribunal in Dublin Castle. In fact, Keith Harrison went further, saying: “I demand that my case be included in any Inquiry/Commission of Investigation by the Government and political establishment.” He got his wish.

When published, the terms of reference for the inquiry into protected disclosures and “certain other matters” twice named Harrison’s claims in relation to alleged “inappropriate contacts between An Garda Siochana and Tusla”.

Now, in an interim report published last Thursday to which the word “damning” scarcely does justice, Supreme Court Justice Peter Charleton has dismissed his case, concluding: “All of the allegations of Garda Keith Harrison and Marisa Simms examined by the tribunal are entirely without any validity.” As if that wasn’t clear enough, he twice used the word “nonsense” to describe claims of misconduct made against fellow gardai.

Ireland has become used to processing tribunal findings over the past decades. Even by those standards, last week’s interim report was remarkable. This was no cryptic “on the one hand/on the other hand” piece of legalese. “Nonsense” is not a word which invites multiple interpretations.

The report makes troubling reading for those who took up Harrison’s cause, not least Independent TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly, who were publicly thanked by him back in February when the terms of reference of the Charleton Tribunal were published. They had been early adopters of his cause, but appear to be less vocal since his claims were discredited.

Public representatives are in an awkward position. Individuals will obviously approach them all the time for support, and they must be ready to use what influence they have in support of cases they deem to be important.

That, though, only makes it all the more critical that they exercise judgment when deciding which cases to champion, as throwing their weight behind the wrong person can damage the case of others who need support. The case of Keith Harrison is a warning that not all those who call themselves whistleblowers, or who are hailed as such, are what they say they are.

The more extraordinary the claims, the higher the threshold of proof needs to be, but there was no equivocation or caution in Mick Wallace’s handling of these allegations. Instead he told the Dail that, after making his complaint, other gardai “initiated proceedings against (Harrison), dragged in a domestic, family matter, and made dirt of the individual”.

These wholly unproven allegations were presented, under Dail privilege, as indisputable facts.

Public representatives must be held to a higher standard when they speak. All too often, they act instead as if subject to a different set of rules. “It is a given,” Wallace even said, “that this man will be proven correct in the long term.” Those who already “know” the truth don’t feel the need to tread carefully.

Last week’s interim report is also bad news for Labour’s Alan Kelly. The Tipperary TD has enjoyed something of a rehabilitation as his claims against Frances Fitzgerald bore fruit with the Tanaiste’s (eventual) resignation on foot of criticism for not acting on her knowledge of the legal strategy to undermine Maurice McCabe. In that case, Kelly seems to have quietly gone away and forensically amassed his evidence before striking. Now his enemies will undoubtedly seek to undermine him again by saying that he too fell for “nonsense”.

Kelly can certainly be accused of poor judgment by lobbying for Harrison’s allegations to be included in the Charleton Tribunal, but it is worth noting that he was much more responsible in his approach to the case, raising questions rather than making sensationalist blanket statements. He also immediately accepted last week’s report.

It is all the more important that those who raise these issues hold up their hands when they get it wrong, because, in championing the allegations of whistleblowers, they are implicitly pointing the finger of guilt at those against whom allegations are made. That can have severe personal and professional consequences for those involved. Mud sticks.

This was very much on Justice Charleton’s mind, as he went out of his way in his report to exonerate guards and social workers whose names had been dragged through the dirt by Keith Harrison, recognising the toll that this “deeply upsetting experience” must have taken on them.

Charleton’s focus is on the facts, not the behaviour of TDs, but the interim report demands a response from them all the same, because not even public exoneration on this scale will spare those wrongly accused of misconduct from a continued whispering campaign by conspiracy theorists who haunt social media.

The victims have a right to expect that those who propagated these damaging slurs should withdraw them.

Just as crucially, continuing to defend those who have been declared by the tribunal to have made false allegations also allows others with less than admirable motives to discredit witnesses as a whole by tarring them all with the same brush. That does real Garda whistleblowers a monstrous disservice.

There is no justification for any of those who called for a tribunal to now cast suspicions on its working just because it found against one man. This was the only module in the inquiry which touched on Keith Harrison’s case. The main business of the tribunal is to look into the smear campaign against Garda McCabe. Now that the “nonsense” has been dealt with, the real work goes on.

Last week’s refreshing dose of plain speaking by Peter Charleton can only inspire confidence in his ability to cut through the forest of politically inspired misinformation to get at the truth, however ugly and disturbing that turns out to be.

‘Now that the “nonsense” has been dealt with, the real work goes on’