Michaél McGloughlin tweetz:
….€10,000 deposit and No Kitchen!
Fair enough.
19 Grace park road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 (Daft)
Thanks Jan Quadrant Vincent
Blue Flew
at
A spokesperson for Department of Justice says that reports Noirin O’Sullivan is in hospital is a matter for the gardaí to comment on #Dail
— Saoirse McGarrigle (@mcgarrigle1) October 5, 2016
Garda Press Office won’t comment on reports Garda Commissioner is in hospital, describing her health as “completely private matter” #Dail
— Saoirse McGarrigle (@mcgarrigle1) October 5, 2016
There is something going around, in fairness.
Earlier: Protecting Disclosures
Update:
Gardaí have appealed for privacy surrounding Noirin O'Sullivan's health. They won't comment on her hospital admission in recent days. #Dail
— Saoirse McGarrigle (@mcgarrigle1) October 5, 2016
Rollingnews
Meanwhile..
“Regarding recent media reports, Commissioner O’Sullivan would like to make it clear that she was not privy to nor approved of any action designed to target any Garda employee who may have made a protected disclosure and would condemn any such action. It would be inappropriate for An Garda Síochána to comment on the specifics of any protected disclosure.”
An Garda Síochána statement this afternoon
Sun Burn
at
Members of Derry City and Strabane district council also voted to throw their support behind the group known as Total Eclipse of the S*n, which wants every shop to boycott the newspaper.
The motion, proposed by an independent councillor, was supported by Sinn Féin, SDLP and other independent members. There was only one vote against. Seven unionists, members of the DUP and UUP, abstained.
It was proposed as a way of showing support and respect for the families of the 1989 Hillsborough football stadium disaster. Independent councillor Paul Gallagher said: “In the aftermath of the Hillsborough inquiry, we wanted to show solidarity with the families, just as they showed solidarity with the families of Bloody Sunday.”
Could Derry’s Hillsborough vote on the Sun start a ball rolling? (Roy Greenslade, The Guardian)
John Gallen writes:
You may or may not like The Sun, but censorship is censorship. When did banning stuff become popular again anyway… when’s the next book burning?
Fight!
Further to Independents 4 Change TD Clare Daly’s interview on Morning Ireland this morning in relation to the treatment of Garda whistleblowers and, during which, she called for the resignation of Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan.
The matter was raised with Taoiseach Enda Kenny during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil today.
Mr Kenny had the following exchanges with Sinn Fein TD Mary Lou McDonald and MS Daly.
Mary Lou McDonald: “You say the minister [for justice Frances Fitzgerald] will reflect on these matters and decide what to do. I understand that the minister has in fact been in possession of correspondence for some months. I understand that the minister actually failed to respond to a number of Garda whistleblowers. Can I ask you Taoiseach, who’s in charge here? Is the minister in charge? Is the commissioner in charge? Who is accountable for these practices? Who is accountable for the smearing and targeting of Garda whistleblowers. Do you have confidence Taoiseach in the commissioner? Do you have confidence that she is discharging her duties fully and faithfully. Do you have confidence in her capacity to protect whistleblowers? And I would ask you the same question of your minister, Minister Frances Fitzgerald.”
….
Enda Kenny: “I haven’t seen the correspondence that the minister received, nor should I because it was sent to her [France Fitzgerald] under that [the Protected Disclosures] act.I assume that the information, contained therein, needs to be examined and needs to be reflected upon very carefully becaue it is very serious.”
“Otherwise, it wouldn’t be received under that section of the act. Somebody’s got to do that Deputy [Mary Lou] McDonald and I would expect that that would be, or certainly that that could be a member of the judiciary who will examine the contents of the document received and see whether they stand up or whether they don’t.”
“Obviously, out of that, out of that comes a decision about what action might or might not be taken. I’ve already said I’ve absolute confidence in the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner, I don’t have any reason not to.”
….
Clare Daly: “Taoiseach, you might have got away with that response to deputy McDonald, if you could call it a response, if this was an isolated incident of mistreatment of whistleblowers and I note that you’re confidence in this minister and the commissioner are a bit like the time you gave 100% confidence to the last two before it went to zero overnight.”
“Now, exactly two years ago this week, I put it to you that a Garda whistleblower in the Midlands region had come forward with serious information regarding Garda involvement in the drugs trade. Information which was indisputable.”
“Now that individual Nick Keogh has subsequently been vindicated by an internal Garda inquiry which supported his allegations in that regard. And yet, two and half years on, this whistleblower has been out sick for almost a year, he’s surviving on just over €200 a week. He’s had five internal investigations drummed up against him. Medical certificates admitted saying he was out with work-related stress were changed to absence from flu, while the Superintendent who stood over all of that is on the promotions list.”
“Now you were twice approached by a Garda in that division and warned about a senior officer who failed to deal with complaints in that area and twice, since you were approached, that senior officer has been promoted. Including, being handpicked by the Commissioner for a high-profile job in the Phoenix Park, despite three complaints against Garda whistleblowers against him.”
“Four times, one of the Garda whistleblowers wrote directly to your Minster for Justice and told her of the treatment he was experiencing. He made the point that, as his colleague in a different region was getting exactly the same treatment that it couldn’t be a coincidence and it was inconceivable that senior management and the Garda Commissioner would not be aware of it.”
“Nineteen times myself and Deputy Wallace have raised what has been happening to whistleblowers Nick Keogh and Keith Harrison, who’s out two years surviving on a pittance with a young family. He’s post has been opened. Garda patrol cars cruising down a lane where he lived 25 kilometres from the nearest Garda station. The HSE called to his kids – all on Commissioner O’Sullivan’s watch.”
“So, really, how many examples do you need to be presented to you in terms of the gulf between the public statements of the Commissioner and her private actions in relation to dealing with whistleblowers before you’re going to act. Your minister has had [inaudible] from the O’Higgins commission. She’s had the Section 41 complaint from the civilian head of An Garda Siochana and, most shockingly, she has had a protected disclosure of two senior gardai outlining systematic, organised, orchestrated campaign to not just discredit a whistleblower but to annihilate him with the full involvement of the present and former commissioner. So I want to ask you, Taoiseach, is very simple. What in God’s name do you need another investigation for? Is it not patently obvious that it’s beyond time for the commissioner to go?”
Kenny: “Well, the question here is in respect of the, of the information received under the Protected Disclosure Act and that has been received by the Minister for Justice. She has to assess that and appoint a person of competence to deal with it. As I say, whatever is in that documentation, either stands up or it doesn’t. And in that regard it is a very serious matter. The powers of GSOC are there for all to see, the justice has requested that those powers be extended and the minister is considering that. The Independent Police Authority itself has been asked for its views on, on the treatment of whistleblowers and those in the gardai who made disclosures known about wrongdoing or alleged wrongdoing. From that point of view, as I said, whistleblowers should not be in the position that you outline here for two members of the gardai and, obviously, if these investigations have been taking place, whether by GSOC or internally, this matter has to be concluded. Whistleblowers have always provided a valuable service in the public interest and I respect that completely and will defend it. In the case of the most recent documents received by the Minister for Justice , we’ve got to deal with that by appointing a person of ability to go through that documentation and assess whether or not the contents of it stand up or whether they don’t. And I expect that the minister will make an announcement about that very soon, Deputy Daly.”
Daly: “You tell us that whistleblowers shouldn’t be treated poorly and you’ll respect and defend that but you must have a different interpretation of her respect and defence than I have. Because you have been presented with evidence, and your minister has, over a period of two and a half years, that that has not been the case.”
“You tell us that GSOC has the powers that the powers are there for all to see. The powers are not there for all to see, even GSOC have said they don’t have the powers to deal with this situation. Does it not seem odd to you, minister, or Taoiseach, when you listen to the commissioner this morning, when she says that the gardai is an area where she wants to encourage whistleblowers to come forward despite all of the evidence that these people have been mistreated.”
“So, could you maybe tell me this? If the commissioner herself is not directly involved in that harassment, do you not have a problem that her authority is so discredited that instructions she has allegedly given – for whistleblowers to be protected – are being wholesale ignored across the ranks of An Garda Siochana, because that is the evidence that is being presented to your minister over a whole period of time.”
“So if you mean what you say, and you really do really respect and defend whistleblowers, you’d be answering very differently because you’d actually be doing something rather than just talking about it.”
Watch Dáil proceedings live here
Earlier: “Word Came Down From The Top That He Be Crushed”
Previously: When The Whistle Blows
‘They Tried To Blame Maurice For Everything. It Was Bullshit’
From top: Willem Van der Hagan’s view of Waterford, c1745, and Blaise Smith’s Waterford 2012 painting showing the city from across the River Suir.
Claire Feely writes:
The Office of Public Works and Waterford City & County Council recently commissioned Irish artist, Blaise Smith, to create a new large-scale painting that reflects a 21st century view of Waterford city under the Per Cent for Art Scheme for flood defence works.
In 1735, Waterford Corporation, as it was then known, commissioned a painting of the city from a Dutch painter William Van der Hagen (d. 1745). This painting still hangs today in the Bishop’s Palace and is considered to be a painting of national importance.
The new painting entitled “Waterford 2016”, 5 metres in length and comprised of 52 panels, will act as companion painting to the Van der Hagen painting.
Pics: Patrick Browne
Dangerous
at
From top: Clare Daly TD; Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan
This morning.
Further to revelations concerning the treatment of Garda whistleblowers by senior members of the force Clare Daly went on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland earlier to call for the resignation of Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan.
Grab a tay
Cathal MacCoille: “The Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald is considering allegations made by two Gardaí regards what they say is a campaign against them run by senior Gardaí. We asked the Minister to appear on the programme, she wasn’t available. Independent TD Clare Daly met the two gardaí a short time ago. I asked her outside the obvious limitations of speaking outside Dáil privilege what the two Gardaí had said to her about how they were treated.”
Clare Daly: “I suppose it fits in very much with what we’ve been saying, about the huge gulf between public statements of the Commissioner offering support to whistleblowers in the force, and what goes on behind the scenes.Now, we would be aware for some time now that the people making protected disclosures have been subjected to bullying and harassment.
What is so shocking is we’re seeing a lot of what they’ve been saying and what they’ve experienced completely vindicated, in the most shocking terms by one senior officer who admitted that he played a part in that, and in essence what’s been said is that there was a deliberate and organised campaign to annihilate this whistleblower, word came down from the top that he be crushed.
He had to be discredited, inaccurate information was given about him in the most horrific way, text messages were sent to Gardaí, people in the media told “you don’t want to be talking with him now, you know all about him, hint hint”, with some more graphic detail beside it.
Politicians, who I think need to come clean, also got the message about him. What it was, was an attempt to isolate and crush this man, because he had the audacity to speak up against the hierarchy, and I suppose the most serious part of all of this, was that, the claim is, it was done utterly with the knowledge of the former and present Commissioner.”
Mr MacCoille: “Now, we have to point out that what the Commissioner has sent, and what I see here in the Examiner, is that she’s not going to comment on any particular protected disclosure, but she again said she welcomes any protected disclosure, and that she has expressed her support for employees with issues and concerns. She has actively said (the aforementioned). You, from what you hear… are you at the point where you don’t accept what she’s saying?”
Ms Daly: “I was at that point long ago. I know for a fact that people that have come forward under the watch of Commissioner O’Sullivan with issues and concerns have had no contact from her at all in relation to their claims. People who in their stations have been doing the bullying have been included on the promotions list, while they are out sick from work, isolated, harassed, on very low pay.
The reality is for those people is the complete polar opposite of what the commissioner has said. And in fairness, the O’Higgins report itself gave evidence of the gulf between statements and reality. Because the O’Higgins Commission showed that despite the statements made, the instruction of the Commissioner’s legal team was very much to attack the character of Maurice McCabe. I don’t accept it all, that’s not the reality.”
Mr MacCoille: “There are two issues that arise here: one is the response of the government, one is the response of the Commissioner. Let’s talk about the commissioner first. What do you think the position of the Commissioner is on what you’ve just said?”
Ms Daly: “Well, once the O’Higgins reported was published, myself and Deputy Mick Wallace called for the Commissioner to go. I think that is even more the case now, because, let’s not for get, the civilian head of the Garda Síochána made a Section 41 complaint to the Minister about the treatment of whistleblowers, we know that’s been on the Minister’s desk.
The main whistleblower that has come forward under the reign of the current commissioner have written four times directly to the Minister about the problems he has faced. What more information does the government need before it should take action?
I think the Commissioner has to go, and if the Government doesn’t deal with this, then the Minister will find herself joining her fairly quickly.”
MacCoille: “But I’ll make the obvious point to you, that you’re accepting the allegations, that you’ve met the whistleblowers, and read the report in today’s Examiner that senior officers mounted a smear campaign with approval. But you seem to be accepting one side of the campaign and not hearing the other, the Commissioner’s side. She says she’s behind whistleblowers, and will support them.”
Daly: “I’ve been hearing that for two-and-a-half years, and if it was just an isolated report that landed out of the blue, there might be some credibility in that approach. But what we have now is an avalanche, we have the treatment of the previous whistleblowers, we have the revelations of O’Higgins, we have the civil head’s Section 41 complaint. It goes on and on and on.
We’ve seen, and met, and know some of the whistleblowers quite well. Their lives have been destroyed, their families have been brought into the loop and targeted in the most vile and shocking of ways.
Y’know, the gas thing is, when I was talking to some of them yesterday, and they were reading the report. Over the years, a lot of them thought, ‘are we being paranoid? Maybe we’re overstating it or exaggerating it?’ Y’know what, they didn’t even know the half of it. While that was comforting it was also really shocking as well, and everybody ought to be worried.”
Listen here
Senior Garda Tried To Destroy Source (Michael Clifford, irish Examiner)
Previously: When The Whistle Blows
They Tried To Blame Maurice For Everything
Rollingnews