Drew Harris

I mean, there were a number of things.

There was the fact that she called for the resignation of the Garda commissioner and the minister for justice.

seemed to politically backfire quite badly.

It probably didn't help that the Garda commissioner at the time, Drew Harris, himself had his own father killed by the IRA during the Troubles, as far as I know.

So there were layers, layers within layers there that actually ended up damaging Sinn Féin, I think.

Plus there was that question of her posting a photograph of a homeless guy on a step near where the school attack had happened.

It's really very highly unusual.

And Mary Lou MacDonald responds to this by saying she's no confidence in Drew Harris as the Garda chief commissioner.

She's no confidence in the justice minister.

You make clear that you're not impressed by that response.

It was a time to show a unified front against the rioters.

Let me ask you about one aspect of this.

Sinn Féin didn't hide the fact that it never wanted Drew Harris to be commissioner for the Guards, chief commissioner.

He was a former RUC special branch officer.

I was in Dubai a few years ago.

I actually, Drew Harris, the Garda Commissioner at the time, just happened to be out there at that time.

And I actually interviewed him out there.

And he said to me that the gang was worth 1 billion euros.

And he was given the Scott Medal for bravery.

This was raised in the Dáil in October, just during the presidential election, because the, one of the candidates, uh, Heather Humphreys, made the award along with the Gardai commissioner in, in, in, back in the day, in 2020, I think.

Um, and maybe Micheál Martin agreed that this bust should be reviewed.

However, the Gardai commissioner said they weren't, they, they didn't de- they didn't review Scott Medals.

They, they were there for life.

And that was the then Gardai commissioner, Drew Harris?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, we touched on, uh, a name, Joe Shelley.

And that's Labour TD Alan Kelly.

So with the full scope of the political fallout yet to unfold, What next for former Justice Minister Helen McEntee, the current Minister Jim O'Callaghan, and the Guard Commissioner Drew Harris' successor, Justin Kelly? Political journalist with the Irish Daily Mail, John Drennan, joins me now.

John, good morning.

Morning, Paul.

Yeah, I watched this programme twice actually to analyse it, and I'm deeply concerned that things haven't changed since the Maurice McCabe tribunals.

The reforms that were to be brought in by Drew Harris and others, and even the present commissioner who is sitting as senior manager, that things haven't changed.

And, you know, when I looked at and listened to the people who disclosed it from Rose Sweeney, Luke Rochford, Brian O'Reilly, These are good people, Luke Rochford.

And I mean, all people who had honest and serious concerns of what was happening, especially in Garda headquarters.

And I think Rose Sweeney said that she was talking about integrity, doing the right thing and telling the truth.

and seen and witnessed, she's seen and witnessed resistance within the organisation at senior management level around protected disclosures.

And actually, I think she said that Drew Harris kind of dismissed her and Donald Cochrane's relation to protected disclosures.

That's very, very worrying.

And whereas on the face of it, that's not something that would necessarily have impacted on Sinn Féin more than any of the other political parties in particular.

But the reaction, and particularly Mary Lou McDonald's calling for the resignation of both the Garda Commissioner, Drew Harris, and the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, And you've that very well laid out in the book and the kind of change that brought on Siobhan.

But one thing that struck me about it was, obviously, it got a bad reaction at a time when there was a sense that people should be pulling together.

But it was nearly, to my ears, as if Sinn Féin, ourselves alone, it was irrespective of the issues this might bring up for society at large, as far as the party was concerned, It could be used as an advantage against their political opponents, as opposed to standing as a body politic, perhaps, as one against this really pretty dark kind of tone of violence.

And two months later, he was told that a new office would be set up by January 25 and there was no place for him in it.

In all, four whistleblowers alleged that serious claims of wrongdoing and safety breaches in policing were contained and concealed by senior management under former Commissioner Drew Harris.

In response, On Garda Síochána said it considers the area of protected disclosures to be of the utmost importance and is committed to ensuring the integrity of the structure for making and investigating all such reports.

The new estimated cost of building a metro for Dublin, which is being brought to Cabinet for approval this morning, is expected to be significantly higher than the last estimate four years ago.