BLISTERING MEMO THE GARDA CHIEF MUST DREAD

EXCLUSIVE: The explosive minutes of meeting that undermines O’Sullivan’s testimony to Dáil committee

AN explosive dossier of detailed notes, memos and minutes backing up Garda HR chief John Barrett’s claims against Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan suggest the embattled Garda boss was aware of issues at Templemore a full month earlier than she has testified to in the PAC.

The claim is made in a series of forensically detailed documents regarding Mr Barrett’s attempts to get the force to confront the significant financial and cultural issues at the Garda College.

Among them are the minutes of the disputed meeting with the Commissioner

which he says lasted more than two hours, and which she testified was a ‘very brief’ meeting over a cup of tea at the Tipperary campus.

There is an avalanche of new revelations in Mr Barrett’s dossier which includes a chronology outlining his attempts to uncover what he calls the ‘ugly truth’ after he became aware of questionable practices at the college. The revelations include:

A letter from Tipperary TD Michael Lowry to Minister Frances Fitzgerald about Templemore Golf Club was discussed at a meeting with the Commissioner and referred to as a ‘complicating’ factor;

A €220,000 gross redundancy payment for staff negotiated with SIPTU was paid out of a slush fund known as the restaurant account;

Stark fears were expressed about potential breaches of the law. At one point he says ‘if funds were misappropriated into private accounts, a criminal investigation will be required under the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud) Act 2001;

A claim by Mr Barrett that then Garda chief administrative officer Cyril Dunne told him on a number of occasions that the Commissioner was aware of their investigations into Templemore College a full month before she told the PAC she was made aware on July 27.

Claims that the working group the Commissioner testified that she set up after the July 27, 2015 meeting in Templemore, was in fact set up by Cyril Dunne on July 2;

Extensive details of the minutes of that July 27 meeting call into significant question the Commissioner’s assertion that the meeting was ‘very brief’ and a chat over a cup of tea. Other comments noted include a suggestion by the Commissioner that she had yet to see evidence of misappropriation of funds;

Mr Barrett likens it to the Roddy Molloy FÁS scandal and Console charity scandal, but suggests that some of the expenditure in the FÁS debacle was more justified.

Criticism of the promotion of people involved in the administration of Templemore subsequent to the problems emerging, suggesting this showed that compromising the rules, and maladministration was ‘no impediment to advancement’;

Mr Barrett describes vast amounts of money passing through accounts. He says the revenue relating to tens of thousands of transactions through the shop, accommodation, laundry, bars and restaurant was mixed with State money over 10 years amounted to more than €12m.

The money was distributed into 42 accounts – eventually found to be 50 – at banks and credit unions and that Mr Barrett believes this means the official Garda accounts are ‘compromised’;

Details of gardaí earning three hours on a special weekend holiday rate overtime for ‘pool sampling’ work at the college swimming pool. A civilian still had to serve as a lifeguard. There are extensive references to the tax liabilities incurred by mismanagement of finances, and the potential lack of cover by insurance; An admission by top gardaí that Templemore Golf Club had not paid six years of rent arrears amounting to €87,500 and that chances of recovery were ‘low’, and an admission that the golf club had a potential case for ‘adverse possession’ or squatter’s rights. The 125-page dossier raises significant and serious questions over Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan’s account of a crucial meeting about the extraordinary financial mismanagement at Templemore and exposes in forensic detail the scandal at the Garda College.

Mr Barrett’s dossier was submitted to the Public Accounts Committee this week and has been seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday.

The dossier details further contradictions of Ms O’Sullivan’s account of the scandal.

Appendix 3 of the documents carries three pages of minutes from the disputed meeting on July 27, 2015 attended by Mr Barrett, Ms O’Sullivan and three others. The document details what time the meeting started, that it took place in the library in the Garda College and that Mr Barrett felt ‘real tension’. His notes reveal that ‘all others in attendance said that I “needed to be very careful” when he referred to loss of books of account of the Templemore restaurant. Such is the level of detail and recall that it is difficult to see how Ms O’Sullivan can continue to claim the meeting with four other people took as little as five minutes. The dossier also details how Ms O’Sullivan found out about the issues at Templemore on June 30, 2015. A direct contradiction of her evidence under oath to the PAC two weeks ago that it was July 27 – a whole month later – that she first learned of the issues.

In minutes of a June 30, 2015 meeting between Mr Barrett and Garda Chief Financial Officer Michael Culhane, and Barry McGee he notes that CAO Cyril Dunne had informed him that he: ‘Had advised the Commissioner directly.’

This claim is repeated in his minutes of a meeting later that day with Mr Dunne: ‘I… asked to ensure that the #1 was fully aware. Cyril said he had spoken to her and the Commissioner was aware.’

Mr Barrett excoriates the culture within An Garda Síochána. In the instance where one co-director of the Garda College was promoted to Assistant Commissioner he says ‘participation’ in ‘malfeasance’ is no ‘impediment to promotion’.

Mr Barrett uses some evocative

‘It appears to be reckless disregard of the law’

and sometimes almost apocalyptic language in his dossier. He notes that he feels as if he was treated like t he ‘ devil’ f or h is q uestioning o f longstanding C ollege p ractices.

‘In p articular I b elieve t here n eeds to be an appropriate exploration of the cultural statement which this long-running saga makes about the deep c ultural a rtefacts s urrounding the u se o f p ower a nd c ontrol w ithin the G arda o rganisation,’ h e w rites.

‘This entire matter has been euphemistically d escribed t o m e a s being akin to devil worship at the heart o f t he s eminary.’

‘It appears to be the reckless disregard of law, prudent financial governance and stewardship of public funds within the walls of the training college where Garda formation t akes p lace.’ Mr Barrett points out in the dossier that many of the documents have been sent by registered post to participants in meetings. There i s c learly a n e ffort t o establish an irrefutable evidence t rail. In a ppendix 4 , w ritten w eeks a fter t he promotion ofAssistant Commissioner Anne Marie McMahon, whoworked as director of training at Templemore, M r B arrett writes: ‘It seems that participation and involvement in this maladministration w as n o h istoric o r c ontemporary i mpediment t o p romotion,’ he s ays.

He says of Garda promotion policy: ‘ It s ays a loud a nd f or a ll t o hear that maladministration, the compromise of accounting rules, the infringement of Department of J ustice, D epartment o f F inance regulations is not important. It is no i mpediment t o a dvancement.’

In March, the MoS reported the operation of a slush fund through the Garda ‘restaurant account’. However, the dossier shows such were the resources of this slush fund t hat i t f unded r edundancies o f €220,000 in 2008 and a pension scheme – a h uge f inancial u ndertaking i n i tself.