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Civilian working at Garda HQ claims he was targeted by a criminal investigation after he enquired into the financial affairs of a major public service union – and he blames a ‘malicious complaint’ made by senior civil servants

A CIVIL servant working in Garda HQ claims he was targeted by a criminal investigation after he enquired into the financial affairs of a large public service union, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.

He says in a protected disclosure that a malicious complaint by a senior civil servant triggered the Garda investigation.

In his disclosure, he criticises superiors at Garda HQ. The claims suggest a dysfunctional environment at Garda Headquarters.

The civil servant, who was a senior official at the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU), says he asked legitimate questions about accounting discrepancies at the union. He claims that these enquiries led a union executive and a senior civil servant to make malicious complaints to his superiors at Garda headquarters. These complaints led to his being investigated.

The civil servant, who has worked in a variety of highly sensitive positions at Garda HQ, made a protected disclosure in May 2017 naming Department of Public Expenditure assistant secretary Oonagh Buckley and union executive Eoin Ronayne in the complaint. He also names a senior colleague at HQ. Gardaí would not comment on the matter yesterday.

The protected disclosure describes the complainant as a clerical officer who was working in Garda Internal Affairs in Garda HQ when the events began in 2014.

It reads: ‘It is alleged that a malicious complaint triggered a Garda investigation regarding misuse of Pulse System by [named whistleblower].’

He names a person in a senior position at Garda HQ as ‘involved in the alleged relevant wrongdoing’. He goes on to say: ‘It is believed the complaint emanated from Eoin Ronayne in CPSU through Oonagh Buckley in DPER [the Department of Public Expenditure]’.

In documents seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday, the complainant says he had been pursuing a campaign within the CPSU to obtain detailed breakdowns of ‘money we spend on legal advice and expenses to members’.

The CPSU made a €64,000 settlement with the Revenue in 2015 after a voluntary tax disclosure.

In October 2014, the civil servant wrote to Mr Ronayne, general secretary of the CPSU, asking for information about an alleged complaint he had made to Ms Buckley, who was then an assistant secretary at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. He claimed Ms Buckley then complained to the civil servant’s superiors at Garda HQ.

The complaint led to gardaí carrying out an investigation into the civil servant’s alleged improper use of Pulse to seek information.

He was cleared in this criminal investigation but claims he was then disciplined internally and moved from his position to another role within the Garda, where he continued to deal with sensitive information.

In March 2015, the civil servant’s solicitors wrote to Ms Buckley. The letter says their client ‘was not afforded any opportunity to defend his good standing against unfounded scurrilous allegations’.

The solicitor’s letter says: ‘It is clear from my client’s formal meeting with An Garda Síochána Human Resources that the allegations made had emanated from a senior officer of CPSU through DPER.

‘As my client was not afforded any reasonable recourse by DPER regarding any complaint, I am instructed to enquire… what information was received by DPER and what was the basis of the action they took.’

Ms Buckley replied to the whistleblowing civil servant’s solicitors on April 16, 2016. The Department of Public Expenditure said yesterday that she stands over the content of that letter. She denies asking for disciplinary action to be taken against the complainant.

She said then that having received the solicitor’s letter, she ‘referred the matter to the Chief State Solicitor’s Office.’

She also wrote: ‘I was not asked to arrange for, and did not at any time ask for, disciplinary action to be taken against your client.’

She concedes, however, that she raised another matter: that the whistleblower having roles both within the CPSU and An Garda Síochána.

Ms Buckley’s spokesman said yesterday: ‘Ms Buckley stated that is was a well-accepted convention in the civil service that persons who play a significant trade union role do not work in human resource areas and that this was a legitimate consideration for the employing department concerned.

‘Ms Buckley further stated that her department did not take any action against the individual concerned.

‘Ms Buckley stated that she did not believe that the individual concerned was guilty of any form of misconduct.’

On January 2 this year, the CPSU amalgamated with Impact and the PSEU to form a huge new union called Fórsa. Mr Ronayne remains a union executive. He said that his union had received a data protection request from the civil servant but he dismissed the claim that his union had complained to the department.

‘I can categorically say that no complaint was ever made to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform or to the Garda authorities back whenever that was, 2014, and that is what our investigation showed.

‘When we looked into it as requested by him, nothing showed up and that is the end of it. Now he has dropped that and we haven’t heard about it.’

Mr Ronayne accepts that a complaint of a different nature had been made: he said that he had asked the civil servant to stop contacting union members.

‘Misuse of Pulse system by the whistleblower’ Dismissed claims his union had complained