[Screengrabs of a report by Ursula Halligan on TV3’s 5.30pm news tonight]

Ms Halligan reported on some of the evidence that the anonymous garda whistleblower will present to the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, and a statement from him on the matter.

She reported that the garda sergeant will tell PAC that as many as 200 senior gardaí regularly quashed penalty points for family, friends and ‘powerful people’.

He will claim 14 senior gardaí were ‘habitual offenders’, with those 14 alone writing off fines worth €1million, and one of those 14 costing the State €80,000.

Among the examples he will present to PAC, include:

– A sports star who was caught speeding seven times – five in one day – by a Go-Safe van, which would amount to €560 in fines. But the sports star received neither a fine nor a penalty point. Ms Halligan reported that the whistleblower claims the only reason for the star not getting fined was ‘garda discretion’.

– A ticket issued for speeding on October 1, 2012 would have amounted to an €80 was later cancelled because the driver was ‘being tested at an NCT tester’. But when the whistleblower contacted the NCT centre, he was told the car had been NCTed 18 months earlier and was not being tested on the day the ticket was issued.

– In May 2011, a male motorist was caught speeding on a stretch of road in Kildare. The speeding ticket was cancelled by a senior officer, who explained it away by saying there was a query about the speed limits in the area. However, the whistleblower says 14 other motorists caught in the same place, around the same time, on the same day, by the same Go-Safe van, all had to pay their speeding fines.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan and the whistleblower will appear before PAC on Thursday, starting at 10am.

Watch the TV3 report in full here

Previously: The Right To Remain Silent

The 2.2%