McGuinness: We need someone from outside State to probe 'smearing' claims
There are concerns that a judge-led inquiry into allegations of bullying and intimidation within the Gardaí will not go far enough.
Two senior officers claim they were directly involved in the smearing of a whistleblower.
Since taking office in 2014 following the retirement/sacking of Martin Callinan as Commissioner, Commissioner O’Sullivan publicly has expressed the need for whistleblowers in the force and said that speaking out was not dissent or disloyalty to the force.
There has been a litany of testimony from whistleblowers such as Maurice McCabe, Keith Harrison and Nick Keogh, who speak of a much troubled police force.
The Justice Minister Francis Fitzgerald has given former High Court judge Justice Iarlaith O'Neill six weeks to carry out a review into the smearing controversy. Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan says the force will cooperate fully it.
However, Fianna Fáil TD and former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee John McGuinness says he has reservations about the scope of the review.
"In order to deal with this comprehensively, you need somebody from outside the State," he said, "who will not be afraid of any vested interest and will tell it as it is, disclose everything warts and all so that we can five a solution to these problems once and for all."
