Tag Archives: Garda station recordings

white
[Former Detective Sergeant John White, leaving the Morris Tribunal, Dublin in 2005 and who was subsequently dismissed from An Garda Síochána. The Morris Tribunal concluded Mr White had planted a shotgun at a Travellers’ camp in Burnfoot, Co. Donegal in May 1998 in order to arrest seven innocent people for questioning about the killing of pensioner Edward Fitzmaurice in his Mayo home two weeks earlier. It also concluded he induced Raphoe man Bernard Conlonto be found after hours drinking on the premises of Frankie’s nightclub, owned by the McBreartys, in Raphoe in August 1997 – for the purposes of prosecuting Frank McBrearty Snr.]

A prominent Donegal solicitor has called for the findings of the Morris Tribunal to be revisited in the wake of the revelations about the widespread recording of phone calls to and from Garda stations.
Paudge Dorrian, who went public with claims in 2001 that conversations between solicitors and their clients were being recorded at Letterkenny Garda Station, has made the call.
Mr. Dorrian said that the revelations about the recording of phone calls vindicates himself and his client, former Garda sergeant John White, who was the source of the allegations.
What we are looking at we feel that the entire history of the Tribunal and other matters should now be revisited by an independent tribunal, led preferably by a High Court judge from a different jurisdiction,” he said.

Donegal solicitor calls for Morris Tribunal review in wake of recording at Garda stations revelations (Donegal Democrat)

Graham Hughes/Photocall Ireland

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Finance Minister Michael Noonan went on RTÉ’s Prime Time last night following former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan’s resignation yesterday morning and the lunchtime announcement by Taoiseach Enda Kenny that he has set up a commission of investigation to look at the widespread recording of phone calls at Garda stations across Ireland over approximately 30 years, up until November 2013.

It’s understood that 2,500 tapes of conversations exist.

Minster Noonan – who was  justice minister from December 14, 1982 to February 14, 1986 – appeared with the caveat that he would have a one-to-one interview and that he wouldn’t have to discuss matters with any oppposition members..

Host Miriam O’Callaghan was keen to get a timeline of events from Minister Noonan, to essentially find out who knew what and when in relation to these recordings.

She was especially determined to find out what Justice Minister Alan Shatter knew and when he knew it. This is largely because of what has been reported so far, specifically:

Enda Kenny told the Dáil that he first he heard about the issue of garda station recordings was when the Attorney General Máire Whelan told him late on Sunday afternoon around 6pm.

– On Monday night, a senior civil servant was sent to have a chat with Martin Callinan – who was under pressure from Labour and Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar to withdraw his ‘disgusting’ remark about Garda whistleblowers Sgt Maurice McCabe and John Wilson – to talk about the Government’s unease about ‘recent events’.  Callinan was also informed of the Government’s plan to hold an investigation into the garda station recordings.
– On Tuesday, Alan Shatter learned about the garda station recordings for the first time.

However.

RTÉ News reported last night that a letter was sent by Callinan to the Department of Justice on March 10 – five days before Minister Shatter left for Mexico as part of his St Patrick’s Day jaunt – outlining the matter about the garda station recordings, while the Attorney General was made aware of the matter as far back as November 2013 and had been involved in a working group in order to deal with the issues, in consultation with Martin Callinan.

And.

GSOC reported on these issues in June 2013, when it investigated a Garda assault case involving Anthony Holness. The GSOC report said the Garda Commissioner ‘may wish to re-evaluate his practice regarding the recording of such calls and the consents required if it is to be permissible to use such recordings in evidence’.

RTÉ’s Katie Hannon of Prime Time said t she was told Minister Shatter didn’t see that GSOC report and that there was no legal obligation for the GSOC report to be brought to Minister Shatter’s attention.

With that in mind, here’s a transcript of Minister Noonan’s one-to-one interview with Miriam O’Callaghan.

Miriam O’Callaghan: “Minister, first of all, this is a very strange affair, before we go into the substantive problem of obviously recorded phonecalls in Garda stations, it’s important to work out who knew what and when. So if we deal with that issue today, of the recording of the phonecalls in garda stations. People are wondering why it was announced today because that information was in the public domain ever since the court case back in November. As you know, the Holness case and then the GSOC report in June. So, how was it today that it was so important? It was announced and that people only became aware of it in your Government?”

Michael Noonan: “Well, obviously, we don’t know all the facts and that’s why a Commission of Inquiry is being set up and that’s why the gardaí, under the new commissioner and the Department of Justice have been instructed to provide full reports and I can’t give you full answers but I can tell you what I think may have happened.”

O’Callaghan: “I don’t want to cut across you so soon but I’m not asking what actually happened in the gardaí, I’m asking you now about the Cabinet and who knew what and when.”

Noonan: “That’s what I want to address. First of all, the Garda Ombudsman made a report in June of last year and he recommended that because the practice of recording had come to light in Waterford Garda Station, in a particular case that the Commissioner might re-evaluate the practice. This was a very tentative, you know, pitch by the Ombudsman’s office.”

O’Callaghan: “Well it was a direct quote actually, they said ‘Commissioner [Callinan] may wish to re-evaluate his practice regarding the recording of such calls’.

Noonan: “Yeah, he may wish to re-evaluate…

O’Callaghan: “Based on a court criticising that behaviour.”

Noonan: “What I’m saying is that, nothing hangs on it, but it was a tentative enough way of putting a recommendation. Now I don’t know whether the Commissioner re-evaluated or not but, coincidentally, the practice was ended in November [2013], so I presume there was a re-evaluation at some level in the guards.”

O’Callaghan: “But how come Minister Shatter or the Department of Justice was not aware of the GSOC report?”Continue reading →