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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
3 6 June 2017
MEDIA
A
S THE Tribunal of Inquiry into pro-
tected disclosures and Certain Other
Matters prepares for its opening
statement from counsel in mid-June,
Peter Charleton must be wondering
what he’s let himself in for.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The Supreme
Court justice initially agreed to chair a commis-
sion of inquiry, a much more sedate affair than
a tribunal. Set up by Michael McDowell in 2004
during his tenure in the department of justice,
commissions of investigation addressed several
concerns at the time about tribunals of inquiry,
principally their ratcheting costs.
But commissions are held mostly behind
closed doors, and when it emerged shortly after
Charleton’s appointment that false allegations
of child abuse had been made against whistle-
blower Sergeant Maurice McCabe, the public
clamour led the government to upgrade the com-
mission to a tribunal of inquiry. A bigger deal
altogether.
He said there would be two modules in the tri
-
bunal - the first module will concern the reaction
of Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan,
former commissioner Martin Callinan and others
at the highest command level to disclosures
made by Sgt McCabe.
Maurice McCabe rejected plans for a Commis
-
sion of Investigation calling instead for the
inquiry to be held
The second module will deal with members of
the force who made protected disclosures and
whether they were mistreated as a result.
Fortunately, although fresh scandals continue
to emerge from An Garda Síochána almost
weekly, from investigations into breathalyser
statistics and accounting practices in Temp
-
lemore to reports of potential security breaches
as senior officers use third- party email accounts
from Gmail, the Tribunal has avoided attracting
further terms of reference as each new report of
alleged Garda misbehaviour emerged.
Charleton is of course no stranger to Garda tri-
bunals. He was the lead counsel for the Morris
tribunal into Donegal Garda misbehaviour in its
initial years. Set up in March 2002, the tribunal
delivered its final report in 2008, although Char-
leton departed in 2006, appointed a judge to the
High Court. A retired president of the High Court,
Frederick Morris headed one of two Garda tribu-
nals at the time, while Justice Robert Barr headed
a tribunal into the Abbeylara siege which ended
in the death of John Carthy, shot by gardaí. Coin-
cidentally, Barr’s son Anthony, also a barrister,
acted for the Morris tribunal alongside
Charleton.
The latest whisleblowers inquiry (or as it
wishes to be known, the Disclosures tribunal,
and as it will probably become known among
journalists, the McCabe or Charleton Tribunal)
has one advantage over the Morris Tribunal.
While the Donegal inquiry looked at a wide range
of issues covering over a decade, the terms of
reference for – and indeed the events which are
being scrutinised by - the latest probe are much
narrower. Even so, it could take some time to
complete its work. Justice Barr looked at the
events of a 25-hour siege, and the events lead-
ing up to it. His inquiry ran for four years.
Charleton moved swiftly from the first. First
announced early in February, before month’s end
he had delivered impressive opening remarks,
pointedly observing that lies told to the tribunal
would be a “waste of what ordinary men and
women have paid for”, and that the Irish people
expected the tribunal to do its work expediently.
Lies are a big thing for him: in a 2006 book, ‘Lies
in a Mirror: An Essay on Evil and Deceit’, Charle-
ton reflected on the criminals he had worked
with, developing the idea that lying opens up
the evil within all of us.
His opening remarks also sought to shut down
the possibility of delays to the tribunal’s work by
way of appeals to the High Court, arguing that
because so many previous tribunals had led to
appeals to the High Court and Supreme Court,
most important issues relating to tribunals were
pretty much settled law. He also sought to shut
down any claims of journalistic privilege which
might impede the tribunal’s investigations.
An interim report followed in mid-May, dealing
mostly with the logistics of setting up the tribu-
nal. It did reveal that at least some early concerns
about journalistic privilege had been allayed, as
both former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan
and his successor Nóirín O’Sullivan, and Garda
press office superintendent David Taylor, had
waived any privilege in relation to any allegedly
confidential communication with journalists.
Born in 1956, Charleton was educated at St
Mary’s College, Dublin, Trinity College and
King’s Inns, before being called to the bar in
1979. He has written several books on criminal
law in Ireland, as well as articles for both Irish
and international journals on family law, consti
-
tutional law, the law of evidence, criminal law
and judicial review. He has lectured at King’s
Inns, Trinity, Fordham University in New York and
Beijing University. He is unpaid chairman of the
National Archives advisory council. He was
appointed from the High Court to the Supreme
Court in 2014.
A noted musician, he was a founder member
of the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, and is formerly a
member of the board of the Irish Baroque
Orchestra. He is often described as “off beat”
and “quirky”, which may be legal code for “well
rounded” and “has interests outside the law”.
The tribunal looking into Garda disclosures
is in the hands of a well-rounded and
experienced judge who dislikes lies, and
judicial reviews of tribunals
by Gerard Cunningham
Charting the
Charleton Tribunal
Truth only please...
