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RETIRED GARDA JOHN Wilson — one of the two whistleblowers on the issue of penalty points — has released a statement in the wake of Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s apology today.
The Minister claimed on 1 October last year that Wilson and his former colleague Maurice McCabe, who is still a serving member of the force, did not cooperate with the O’Mahoney inquiry into the penalty points controversy.
This afternoon he conceded that he was wrong, apologised to the two men, and said it had never been his intention to cause any upset.
Wilson says today’s events have been “a long time coming”…
… but I’m glad that the record has been finally corrected by Minister Shatter about how we reported our concerns about the unlawful termination of tens of thousands of lawfully issued fixed charge penalty notices.
Here’s the rest of Wilson’s statement…
Approximately 10,000 of these lawfully issued notices were unlawfully terminated on a yearly basis by senior Garda officers. These practices have now ceased directly as a result of our complaints.I would like to thank the general public for their support which kept us going over the past year. My family and I also greatly appreciate the support of Clare Daly TD, Mick Wallace TD, Pádraig McLochlainn TD, Luke Ming Flanagan TD, Joan Collins TD, Joe Higgins TD, Mary Lou McDonald TD, and John Devitt from Transparency International Ireland for all their help since the beginning.
I still encourage any prospective Garda whistleblowers reporting malpractice, wrongdoing and corruption within the force to report their concerns to a member of the Oireachtas and seek advice from Transparency International Ireland.
My colleague Sgt Maurice McCabe is still being penalised on a daily basis for reporting malpractice and corruption within the force. The Garda authorities should be proud to have a person of the calibre of Sgt Maurice McCabe as a member of our policing service. And I’m demanding in the public interest that Sgt McCabe has his full rights of access to the Garda PULSE system restored with immediate effect.
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A sensible, measured response.
Shatter’s apology wasn’t an apology at all. A cheap bit of political expediency and nothing more.
Fair play to him. Fair is fair nobody should be above the law.
John Wilson always speaks from the Heart…
Alan Shatter talks through his H*le and with the help of a Spin Doctor..
It’s a bit silly that the Sargent is not allowed access to PULSE. Smacks of a small minded ex commissioner….
Not if he is releasing your private details (name address dob etc) to TD’s and anyone else he pleases. He can report corruption and malpratice without using/supplying personal details.
Well despicable by your logic shatter shouldnt have access to any confidential files
Why didn’t they just take the whistles off them
He was quick out of the blocks. I heard recently he’s running for election. Good luck to him on it. I’d give a vote or second preference if he was down my neck of the woods.
McCabe however, took a long time (understandably) to respond publicly last time round considering he’s still serving that’s no surprise at all.
However, it’s great to see both men finally get an apology, more or less bring down Callinan, and likely will take Shatter out too, albeit death by a thousand cuts seemingly for him, but these two whistleblowers inflicted the majority.
There’s still a pound or two of flesh to be had off Shatter. He’s wounded now – especially after today’s apology (forced on him by Enda, no doubt).
Vultures are circling Shatter,.
Even the good old lay Bishop, and prized arsehole, Gay Byrne, was calling for Shatter’s head yesterday.
Shatter has to go now .It is a sad day when good men are vindicated eventualy at a cost to their careers and their health.Fine Gael seem to be more interested in political power at all cost rather than a duty to the Irish people.
Fine Gael only interested in power…!?!…surely you must have it wrong!….just kidding. You have it dead right and here’s the rub: nothing will change…much… Just a perception of change.
The party of law and order. It seems Shatter was only upholding the party line…… Hmmm. He needs to go (and this comes from a FG voter… ).
Shatter didn’t cause most of the problems. How he handled them is the problem. That’s the problem.
Agreed. But he is only upholding the party line… How else could one explain his close relationship with the commissioner?
The fact that Garda mc cabe hasn’t acces to their pulse system is a joke. They better fix that and apologise for that also as soon as..
Shatters apology is way too late. Of Shatter was sincere he would have resigned also.
All started when Shatter drink driving was covered up. He could so easily have proved his innocence. Maybe more Irish people will not accept such corruption as a result of these Gardai.
Shatter won’t survive much longer.
Well. I don’t think so.
Shatter is not really the issue. The issue is the cops have yet again proven themselves to be utterly incapable throughout their senior ranks.
Shatter didn’t invent all these problems, he inherited some of them, and made a bollocks of them after he found out the truth.
People can’t take anymore of 1970′s and 80′s nudge nudge wink wink Ireland.
We’ve had enough and we won’t take that anymore. Shatter has to go primarily because of how he handles situations AFTER the fact as much as BEFORE the fact.
Sam … take your point. But the public scrutiny of the relationship between them got public focus from that incident. The commissioner didnt back his own members. Political interference was in play perhaps?
Well done to John Wilson and Maurice McCabe. Perhaps now we can drag our antiquated police force into the 21st century.
Respect to retired Garda John Wilson who done the State great service and is a real hero.
Principle, integrity and courage demonstrate the shabbiness of our politicians who lack these virtues and find them incomprehensible.
The recordings in Garda stations of incoming and outgoing phone calls is a major breach of civil liberties as well as an improper interference in the system of administration of criminal justice. This is a sinister development.
Indeed, Peter.
And what person would be comfortable ringing their local Garda station now and making a complaint with their names attached? I wouldn’t.
It undermines the entire policing of our state.
The collective confidence we have as a nation in our the Gardai is under serious threat I would think.
Personally, the confidence I have, is completely gone. Why would anyone ring now and report a neighbour dealing drugs for example?
It’s over.
Although the practice has supposedly been discontinued, one would have to be extremely naive to trust that this will not happen. It would take a lot to convince me that An Garda Siochana is under proper management and control. Do I trust An Garda Siochana as it is presently managed and controlled? Do I trust it to act lawfully and ethically? No. Misfeasance and maladministration abound. This is not an ethical and moral system of governance.
I decline to recognise the legitimacy of An Garda Siochana unless or until it is subject to an independent and no political governing authority.
These fellows see no harm in fixing penalty points for friends, colleagues and well got individuals such as certain judges, politicians and newspaper editors.
Well said, Peter.
Yet, I fear normal day to day Garda discretion (common sense) will yet again, be the fall guy.
“normal day to day Garda discretion (common sense) will yet again, be the fall guy.” they don’t have any discretion, for An Gadai it is dictated by a) whats in it for me € b) what power/hold over an individual will this give me! As we are seeing every day the Gadai are corrupt to the core.
That’s the end of getting of penalty points.
We need more people like Wilson and McCabe in every organisition in this state,lack of transparency and accountability has been and still is a major problem in far too many groups and just contributes to corruption,for the sake of the country, lets hope we can learn from past mistakes and put in place systems to prevent future abuses of power.
Well done John and best of luck with your health issues.
I second that.
It’s not the front line gardai who are to blame it’s the supt. and the inspectors who are overpaid to manage the force .Most are political appointments and owe their alliegance to political parties not the public.there should be a root and branch clear out of the old hacks and a more modern force set up
Not a resigning issue for Shatter.
Good to see this dignified response from the Garda.
Fine Gael certainly inept at massaging the complaining minority hellbent on promoting this minor issue into such national importance and panic which most of the country are at a loss to appreciate.
Gardai slack and slippery, who knew?
Hard to believe that FG controls the media through DoBrien when this sort of head of steam can arise over traffic penalty points and 40 years of station phone call recordings.
Total side show of trivial issues compared to the real issues affecting Ireland.
Delighted to see that these 2 legends ( and I use this over used word in proper context ) have been given the apology they deserve but sad to see that it was an amateur and immature version of what should have been sincere and repeated on a couple of occasions.
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