McCabe exposed so much more than inept gardaí
Arrogance permeates entire public service
THE remarkable thing about Maurice McCabe and his wife Lorraine, as featured in the powerful RTÉ TV documentary Whistleblower: The Maurice McCabe Story, is that every time they were vindicated they never wreathed themselves in triumph.
Inquiry after inquiry all concluded that Maurice McCabe was correct to expose the serious issues he found in An Garda Síochána. The fact that he was a member of the police force – treated abominably by his colleagues at all ranks when he dared speak truth to power – shows how deep the culture of resistance to reform runs in the organisation.
At one stage during Katie Hannon’s documentary they showed the 90th birthday party for another remarkable man, Michael McCabe, father of Maurice. As the cake was being cut, the band in the background played ‘I Fought The Law And The Law Won’. In truth, of the many things that Maurice McCabe exposed, one of the most disturbing is that the ordinary decent citizen in Ireland is often regarded as a nuisance and at times the enemy of the organs of the State.
No matter who is right or wrong, the State always wins.
We don’t need another tribunal to tell us that there are deeprooted problems in our police force, from the bogus one million breath tests to the rampant corruption exposed in the Garda in Donegal. Most of us know great gardaí, but we are also aware of those bright members of the force who seem unable to get promoted in an institution where educational qualifications seem to come second to seniority and contacts.
But how is it that the arrogance and ‘cute hoorism’ uncovered in An Garda Síochána is also such a feature of our public service? This week’s clamour to cut the pension of former Garda Commissoner Martin Callinan, who conducted the campaign of ‘calumny’ against former Sergeant McCabe, was met by the argument from politicians who defended him that he had contributed to his own pension over the years. Public service pensions – especially those of senior politicians – are heavily subsidised by the taxpayer. No private sector worker could hope to amass the pension pot of Martin Callinan. The attitude to private pensions was evident between 2011 and 2016 when the Government took €2bn out of these savings. The pensions of politicians and public servants were exempt.
When the HSE’s payroll and personnel computer system was abandoned in 2005 after its cost ballooned from €9m to €220m, no one took responsibility.
When ‘E-voting’ was abandoned in 2012 before getting off the ground, €54m was written off as the politicians who introduced the ill-fated system retired early, hugging their giltedged pensions.
Of course ‘cute hoorism’ also permeates private business, as the Anglo Tapes demonstrated.
That the McCabe family allowed a TV crew to effectively live with them for 18 months is one price to pay for speaking truth to power – but that was the least of their sacrifices.
We owe this remarkable family an enormous amount. But their victories will only pay dividends when lessons are learned in every part of the public service.