O’Sullivan to face tribunal over alleged McCabe plot
FORMER Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan is to be the first high-profile witness as the Disclosures Tribunal resumes today.
Ms O’Sullivan, who resigned last September, is scheduled to be questioned on Wednesday about her role in an alleged plot by senior gardaí to smear penalty points whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
The inquiry, which is being held at Dublin Castle and chaired by Judge Peter Charleton, is beginning its work this year by investigating whether Ms O’Sullivan tried to discredit Sgt McCabe at the private hearings of the O’Higgins Commission in 2015.
The O’Higgins Commission examined matters relating to the Garda’s Cavan-Monaghan division after allegations made by Sgt McCabe. The tribunal will question several senior gardaí, along with senior officials from the Department of Justice, about the legal strategy used by the former commissioner at the O’Higgins Commission.
The Garda’s head of legal affairs, Ken Ruane, will be the first witness today.
Recently resigned tánaiste and minister for justice, Frances Fitzgerald, is scheduled to give evidence on January 16. She will be questioned about whether she knew at the time about the Garda’s strategy towards Sgt McCabe at the O’Higgins Commission. Ms Fitzgerald resigned in late November, after it emerged that in May 2015 she and the Department of Justice were notified by email of the strategy being adopted by the Garda commissioner.
Sgt McCabe is due to give his own evidence on January 18.
Brief negatively against Sgt McCabe
Former Garda press officer Superintendent David Taylor is another lead witness due to take the stand in this module of the tribunal, although no date has yet been set for his evidence.
He claims he was briefed to tell the media that Sgt McCabe was motivated in his penalty point whistleblowing by malice and revenge.
The tribunal may also hear from former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan, who has been named in its terms of reference.
The Disclosures Tribunal sat last year and heard evidence about the ‘creation, distribution and use by Tusla of a file containing false allegations of sexual abuse against Sergeant Maurice McCabe’. And the judge is considering whether any use was ‘knowingly’ made of this to ‘discredit’ him by senior members of An Garda Síochána.
Supt David Taylor claims that he was directed by former commissioner Martin Callinan and/or deputy commissioner Ms O’Sullivan, to contact the media to brief them negatively against Sgt McCabe.
The tribunal has already found that all allegations made by whistleblower Keith Harrison and his partner Marisa Simms were ‘entirely without validity’.
Garda Harrison had claimed to be the victim of a five-year campaign of intimidation, after arresting a fellow officer for drink driving. But these claims were described as ‘nonsense’ by Judge Charleton.