Witnesses appearing before the Disclosures Tribunal have been warned that if they tell lies they’ll be wasting taxpayers’ money.
Mr Justice Peter Charleton has outlined how he plans to get to the truth of an alleged smear campaign against the garda whistleblower, Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
However he’s said that he’ll have to deal with a number of legal issues – such as journalistic privilege, and if the tribunal can question the Garda Commissioner about the legal instruction she gave before the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation.
Opening the Tribunal’s public hearings Mr Justice Charleton said what was at the centre of it was not just if Garda officers had behaved in a distasteful manner, but had acted in thought through malice
He says while those appearing before it always had recourse to the courts he hoped that wouldn’t be necessary and also a stark warning to witnesses that the taxpayer was paying for this inquiry.
Mr Charleton hopes to meet the deadlines by concluding investigations rapidly once it gets formerly underway.
Mr Justice Charleton’s asked for potential witnesses or anyone with information to write to the Tribunal in the next two weeks.
Sometime after that lawyers will make an opening statement and sometime after that the first witnesses will be called.
