MINISTER FOR Justice Dermot Ahern has said the careers of two highly respected Garda assistant commissioners were “ruined or at least damaged” by false allegations brought to the attention of the Morris tribunal by Labour TD Brendan Howlin and Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins.
Mr Ahern was speaking in defence of his contribution to a debate in the Dáil on the fallout from the Morris tribunal.
During the debate Mr Ahern criticised Mr Howlin and Mr Higgins for refusing to disclose to the tribunal the sources of allegations of corruption and the planting of evidence against the assistant commissioners Kevin Carthy and Tony Hickey.
The allegations, which the Morris tribunal concluded were totally untrue, were found to have originated with Donegal publican Frank McBrearty Snr. Mr Justice Frederick Morris concluded Mr Higgins and Mr Howlin should have checked the veracity of the “wild” allegations before passing them on for investigation.
During Wednesday’s Dáil debate Mr Ahern criticised Mr Howlin’s and Mr Higgins’s handling of the issue. Mr Ahern was then labelled a “political gurrier” by Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter.
However, speaking in Templemore yesterday, Mr Ahern said he had an obligation to give voice in the debate to two “highly respected” assistant commissioners falsely accused for serious wrongdoing.
“All I was doing was repeating what was in the (Morris tribunal) reports; no more, no less. It would have been a dereliction of my duty if I hadn’t, in some way, tried to give vent and voice to the two gardaí who were debased. Their careers were ruined, or at least damaged, as a result of these false allegations.”
Mr Ahern said Mr Shatter’s attack on him was “the last refuge of somebody who doesn’t have an argument to make”.
