Supt Dave Taylor rejects claim that smear campaign account was false

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

Supt Dave Taylor rejected a claim by counsel at the Charleton Tribunal that his account of a smear campaign against whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe was untrue. The proceedings were reported on 17 May 2018.

Taylor said in a protected disclosure made in September 2016 that former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan had ordered him to conduct the campaign and that former commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan was aware of it. Both former commissioners contested the claim.

Micheál P O’Higgins SC, representing Garda headquarters and the former commissioners, put it to Taylor that he had devised a plan to shield himself from criminal and disciplinary processes. He said Taylor’s allegation in his protected disclosure was untrue. Taylor replied: “I don’t accept that.”

Taylor told the tribunal that an investigation had rightly concluded that he had leaked information to the media in breach of Garda regulations after leaving the Garda press office. Although charges were recommended in the Garda report, none were brought because the Director of Public Prosecutions decided there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction. Disciplinary proceedings were later abandoned.