Ex-Road Safety boss told Leo of McCabe rumours Varadkar didn’t believe reports
THE former head of the Road Safety Authority has admitted that he briefed Leo Varadkar about rumours of sexual abuse surrounding whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
Noel Brett told the Disclosures Tribunal the rumours had not come to him from any Garda source, and did not specify about whether children or adults were involved. He said they were to be heard in a vague form in civil service and media circles.
Rumours were also ‘doing the rounds’ that Sgt McCabe couldn’t be trusted and ‘had issues’. Mr Brett said he felt he should tell Mr Varadkar this, as he was transport minister at the time.
But he said he also told Mr Varadkar that he had called Sgt McCabe about the rumour, and that the whistleblower had reassured him there was nothing in it.
On Tuesday, the Tribunal heard that Mr Varadkar had told a tribunal solicitor he was aware of ‘innuendo and rumour’ concerning Sgt McCabe after being told about them by Mr Brett.
But he said he did not believe them to be true ‘and in any case they did not take away from the evidence-based case he was making in relation to penalty points’.
In a subsequent letter, Mr Varadkar clarified: ‘With regard to the innuendo and rumours, I was informed of these by Noel Brett, then CEO of the Road Safety Authority, which fell under my remit as Minister for Transport.
‘I don’t recall the exact detail of the rumours, but I do recall they related to his character and motivation, that he was untrustworthy and had other grievances unrelated to road safety.’
Mr Brett also yesterday said he was told then Garda commissioner Martin Callinan wanted to ‘bury’ the issue of Sgt Maurice McCabe. He told the tribunal that he learned this from former Garda press officer Supt David Taylor.
The meeting came after Supt Taylor – who has alleged he was
He was aware of innuendo
told by Mr Callinan to brief the media against Sgt McCabe – had been suspended from duty, he said. ‘He did talk to me briefly as to how Sgt McCabe was being treated by senior management,’ Mr Brett added. ‘He would have said to me that Commissioner Callinan was determined to bury this issue, to finish this issue off.’
He said Supt Taylor told him Sgt McCabe’s allegations were being dealt with by the Crime and Security section of the gardaí, and that a particular computer system was being used, known as ‘Oisín’.
Supt Taylor said it was ‘likely’ his phone was being intercepted. Mr Brett said he called Nóirín O’Sullivan, then an assistant commissioner, whom he knew from her work in the traffic division, and asked if this was being done. She denied it, he said. Mr Brett said he never discussed Sgt McCabe with Mr Callinan.