STATEMENT
BY EAMON GILMORE TD
Leader of the Labour Party
Wednesday, 8 October, 2008
I am extremely surprised at the
comments made by Mr.Justice Morris in his Eighth Report
criticising the actions of Deputy Brendan Howlin and
former Deputy Jim Higgins who, in 2000, confidentially
brought to the attention of then Minister for Justice
claims that had been made to them regarding alleged
misconduct by two senior Garda officers.
The suggestion made by Mr. Justice Morris that the two
Deputies should have investigated the allegations
further before taking any action is simply unrealistic
and suggests that the Judge has little understanding of
the role played by, or the powers or resources available
to Dail Deputies. I further believe that the suggestion
that the Committee on Procedure and Privilege should
urgently review the manner in which members of the
Oireachtas deal with allegations brought to their
attention by whistleblowers will cause concern among
members of all parties.
Brendan Howlin and Jim Higgins found themselves in the
situation in 2000 of having had claims made to them of
serious misconduct in regard to senior Garda officers.
The information in the case of Brendan Howlin was
received from a source that had previously provided
extremely accurate and reliable details about Garda
misconduct in Donegal. Brendan Howlin and Jim
Higgins could have gone to the media with the
allegations. They could have gone into the Dail and
repeated the allegations, free from any threat of legal
action. They chose to do neither. Instead the decided to
go in confidence the Minister for Justice and ask him to
have the allegations investigated.
I believe that the actions taken by Brendan Howlin in
2000 were appropriate, prudent and responsible – I
would have taken exactly the same course of action
myself. I fully accept the findings of the Tribunal
clearing the two former Garda Assistant Commissioners,
Tony Hickey and Kevin Carty, but this is not a judgement
that Brendan Howlin and Jim Higgins were in a position
to make in 2000.
While I have the height of respect for Mr. Justice
Morris and the remarkable work he has done in exposing
Garda corruption and abuses in Donegal, I believe that
he has simply got this one wrong.
If the logic of the Tribunal’s findings were to be
carried through, a TD who had an allegation of child
abuse drawn to his or her attention, would not be able
to report it to the appropriate authorities until the
Deputy had gone back to the source of the allegation and
‘pressed them for further information or evidence
backing up these allegations’. Similarly a
Deputy who had a report of serious tax evasion brought
to his or her attention, would be unable to report it to
the Revenue Commissioners for investigation, unless they
had carried out a preliminary inquiry themselves.
Indeed Mr. Justice Morris’s findings are somewhat
ironic given the great restraints placed by the Supreme
Court on the capacity of the Oireachtas to carry out any
formal inquiry of their own.
I am also deeply concerned at the implications of the
Tribunal’s recommendation that some sort of
restriction should be placed on the use of by members of
the Oireachtas on information supplied to them by
‘whistleblowers’. It is vital for our public
life that members of the Oireachtas should be able to
act in a responsible way on information supplied by
‘whistleblowers’. Far from placing limitations
on this we actually need additional protection for
‘whistleblowers’ who often have to place themselves
at considerable risk in order to expose abuses and
wrongdoing in both public and private institutions.
Rather than the criticism levelled at them in the Morris
Report I believe that Brendan Howlin and Jim Higgins are
owed an enormous debt of gratitude by the Oireachtas, by
the overwhelming majority of decent, honest and
hardworking Gardai and the Irish public. It was
their dogged determination to follow up and what to many
people at the time appeared to be scarcely believable
allegations of Garda abuses in Donegal that led to the
establishment of the Morris Tribunal.
It is worth noting that the Fianna Fail/PD government
and then Minister for Justice resisted calls for the
establishment of a Tribunal for almost four years and
only accepted the necessity for it in the face of
mounting evidence of abuses produced by the two
politicians. It was the persistence of Brendan
Howlin and Jim Higgins that eventually forced them to
concede that a Tribunal was necessary.
Without the Tribunal, in all probability, corrupt and
criminal Gardai would still be in place, abuses would
still be going on, terrible injustices done to citizens
in Donegal would never have been exposed, and the major
Garda reforms that have flowed from Mr. Justice
Morris’s recommendations would never have happened.
