The inquiry itself is a public tribunal into a private commission of investigation, which was set up following a non-statutory inquiry into an internal Garda investigation. Surely there is an easier way to address issues when things go wrong in the national police force?

Peel back the layers. If, back in 2008-09, the gardaí had conducted a thorough examination of genuine complaints of malpractice in Co Cavan, none of this would have been necessary. Lessons would have been learned. Disciplinary action could have been taken as a deterrent to others. And Maurice McCabe could have been thanked for performing a service for the force in highlighting the malpractice.

Instead, it was put about that there was no problem, apart, of course, from the whistleblower. He, not policing standards, was the problem. That largely is why we are where we are.

A further example of the dysfunction was evident yesterday during the cross-examination of John Barrett. The head of human resources in An Garda Siochana, Barrett has told the tribunal that, in the days before the O’Higgins Commission began in 2015, the chief administrative officer of the force, Cyril Dunne, made an incendiary comment.

“We are going after him at the commission,” Mr Dunne said, according to Mr Barrett. The reference was to Sgt McCabe. Mr Dunne denies that he said any such thing. If the tribunal were to find that the statement was uttered, it would cast a dark light on the approach of garda management to Sgt McCabe. This module of the tribunal is effectively inquiring as to whether the garda management did go after Sgt McCabe at O’Higgins.

Yesterday, Mr Barrett was cross-examined by counsel for Garda management, Conor Dignam. Mr Barrett is a member of Garda management but is separately represented at the tribunal.

Certainly, in relation to this tribunal, he is in conflict with his senior colleagues. How that augurs for effective management in a police force is anybody’s guess.

At a tribunal that has seen relatively little rancour or even raised emotions between lawyers and witnesses, the exchanges between Mr Dignam and Mr Barrett stood out.

The lawyer brought Mr Barrett through a series of documents which Garda management say discredits the testimony of this member of management.

Mr Barrett didn’t take a note of the meeting and didn’t record it in any manner, nor refer to it in any document over the subsequent months.

Mr Dignam put it to the witness repeatedly that the documentary evidence did not support his allegation. Mr Barrett rejected the suggestion.

“This is the ugly truth,” he said. And the whole of George’s Hall looked up, expecting Mr Barrett to transmogrify into Jack Nicholson, rise to his feet and declare: “You can’t handle the truth”.

But back in the real world he went on: “These matters were put to me and I noted them. This is my testimony.”

The lawyer pointed out to him that the note he took was in his mind, to which Mr Barrett agreed.

Then, after lunch, Mr Barrett looked to be holed below the waterline. On Thursday, he had claimed that, in the months after the alleged utterance, he had told another colleague, Chief Supt Tony McLoughlin, about it. The tribunal was told yesterday that Tony McLoughlin says the first he was told about the utterance was in November/December last year, more than six months after Mr Barrett had given his statement to the tribunal. The revelation from Tony McLoughlin delivered a serious blow to the credibility of Mr Barrett’s allegation.

Judge Peter Charleton was not best pleased.

“The point is you told me yesterday that you had this conversation several weeks after the conversation with Mr Dunne. You said he [McLoughlin] came to you verifying this.”

Last year, Mr Barrett gave dramatic evidence to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee. He told a meeting in Templemore College in which he provided Nóirín O’Sullivan with detailed information about financial irregularities at the college. Ms O’Sullivan claimed the meeting was “a cup of tea”, which didn’t include any details. Mr Barrett had extensive notes to back up his position. He was widely praised for the clarity of his evidence and his stance in pursuit of the truth.

He later wrote a long letter to the PAC in which he quoted from a book authored by none other than the chair of the Disclosures Tribunal, Judge Charleton.

“Deceit is the primary instrument for doing evil,” was the quote in question. Neither Mr Barrett nor the judge brought it up in their testy exchanges yesterday.

In term of giving evidence before a public forum, Mr Barrett’s appearances at the PAC last year are a long way from the evidence at the tribunal yesterday.

As such, his descent was all the way from hero to zero. Notably, it was counsel for his colleagues in Garda management that dismantled his testimony.

There was a further howl about the dysfunction in the force later in the day. That internal Garda investigation back in 2008-09 that brought us all here? At its conclusion in 2011, the divisional officer, Colm Rooney, circulated a letter to all stations in Cavan Monaghan congratulating everybody and declaring that the investigation had shown up nothing but a few minor procedural issues. Nothing to see here, the letter inferred, Sgt McCabe had got it all wrong.

Yesterday, nearly seven years later, Mr Rooney told the tribunal that in light of the O’Higgins findings that Sgt McCabe had got it largely right, he could see that the circular wasn’t too accurate.

“Based on the findings of the O’Higgins commission, the views expressed in my letter congratulating all members was not appropriate,” he said. “My vindication of high standards was not warranted in the circumstances.”

If only things had been done right first time around, the whole issue might have been put to bed years ago. If only there wasn’t so much dysfunction.

If only.