Donna McTeague tells tribunal she was not directed to make home visit

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Tusla social worker Donna McTeague told the Charleton Tribunal that neither gardaí nor her line manager directed her to visit the home of Garda Keith Harrison and his partner Marisa Simms in February 2014. The proceedings were reported on 3 October 2017.

McTeague said the inference that Tusla had abused its power affected her professional reputation and was not true. She accepted that Harrison and Simms had not questioned her professionalism or her engagement with them at the tribunal.

Tribunal chairman Mr Justice Peter Charleton said it appeared that no party was any longer alleging that McTeague had told Simms she was embarrassed to conduct the visit and would not have been there except for directions she had been given.

After McTeague’s home visit, Tusla closed the case, concluding there was no risk to Simms’s children. The tribunal was continuing its examination of contacts between gardaí and Tusla relating to Harrison, which he alleged amounted to an abuse of power.