The Taoiseach mentioned the truth quite a few times. He is well known for having a casual relationship with the truth.

That is outrageous.

The admission, or mea culpa, made by the Taoiseach a moment ago goes well beyond the man with two pints in his hand, the Army protecting the ATM machines or the people ringing up the Department of the Taoiseach to tell it how great the budget was. It goes well beyond that. Let us quote what the Taoiseach said on "This Week" on Sunday. He said:

Minister Zappone, who is doing a very good job, did tell me that she intended to meet with Sergeant McCabe in a private capacity. That's all I knew. I said to her "well if you do have a meeting make sure that you have a thorough account of it."

That is not some slightly inaccurate remembrance of his conversation with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. It is a completely inaccurate statement. He has said that this conversation did not take place. How could he remember it in such detail if it did not take place? It is a central untruth and the reason it matters is because it means that at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the Taoiseach knew about Tusla and did not brief the Cabinet and it means that he consciously did not include it in the terms of reference and that he misled the public on RTE.

Having admitted that moments ago, how can he now continue as Taoiseach? It is not the only matter of fact on which there is a difference. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael can agree that the difference between the Tánaiste and Deputy Jim O'Callaghan does not really matter now. However, it does matter. It matters because one of them is telling the truth and the other one is not. If Deputy O'Callaghan is telling the truth, that means the Tánaiste misled the Dáil on Thursday.

I did not.

We need facts and statements from all of these and we need the ability to question them.

Mr. Martin Callinan described what the whistleblowers were doing as "disgusting". That is the word that sums up the actions of the top gardaí in smearing Mr. Maurice McCabe, engaging in a pattern of black propaganda of a similar sort against at least two other gardaí, political policing, Operation Mizen, spying and trumped up charges against Jobstown protestors. It is disgusting. The Commissioner has said that she will not step aside because "a campaign of false accusations ... do not make me guilty of anything". Tell that to Mr. Maurice McCabe, who had his life ruined. Tell it to Mr. Dave Taylor, who was suspended from his job for 22 months with the Commissioner's husband leading the investigation. The Commissioner's husband took control of his mobile phones, upon which, allegedly, there is a text from the Commissioner saying "Perfect" in response to the idea that a journalist was meeting the alleged victim of Mr. Maurice McCabe. How can the Taoiseach allow Commissioner O'Sullivan to remain in place? How does he know that she will not use her position to obstruct the inquiry?

The questions that Mr. Maurice McCabe has posed do not need a tribunal. We are in favour of a tribunal, but Mr. McCabe has posed six simple questions that the Government and the Ministers can get answers to from the Commissioner, Tusla and the HSE. When will Mr. McCabe have answers to those questions?

It is a funny thing that when one comes to the House and to the people in this position and actually tells the truth, one gets pilloried also. There are many people who were here before me for many years who made mistakes. I stand here to say that I had spoken to the Minister about the information on her meeting with the McCabe family. She notified my office, which told me of that information. I put that in the public domain and I regret that because I should not have. The Minister did not refer to any of the details of the discussion with the McCabes, the existence of a file in Tusla or the information contained in that file. It is not true to say that I had any information about the existence of that prior to the Cabinet meeting in Government Buildings.

The judge who was appointed to conduct the commission of investigation confirmed that what he saw on the "Prime Time" programme was covered by the existing terms of reference. After Judge O'Neill examined both protected disclosures, he was unable to determine the truth. He set out the terms of reference that Government followed faithfully. That included covering the issue of erroneous sexual allegations against Sergeant McCabe.

I will return to the central point. There is an issue of truth and justice that needs to be determined. It is a very sensitive, serious and public matter now. The way to achieve that is to have the co-operation of everybody in order that this work can be done. There is no point in having some private investigation or commission if the McCabe family is not willing to participate in it. As far as I am concerned, the Government was very anxious to decide in principle to have a tribunal of inquiry under the 1921 Act, to be fair to everybody and draft terms of reference that will allow the tribunal to do its work. I hope that can be concluded within the next 48 hours and that it can go through both the Dáil and the Seanad in order to let that commission and tribunal of inquiry get on with its work.

The central issue is whether there was or was not a concerted smear campaign by senior gardaí against Sergeant Maurice McCabe.

That is the question which needs to be answered and it is the question I hope the tribunal of inquiry will be able to deal with in everybody's interest.

Will the Taoiseach agree that what has happened here is utterly chilling, namely, a criminal conspiracy led by the hierarchy of the Garda to destroy the lives of gardaí who pose difficulties for them? If they felt able to do that against gardaí, what else are they willing to do to those who they consider to pose a threat to them? Does the Taoiseach agree that it is a fundamental threat to any notion of democratic rights when those at the top of a police force feel able to do that? Will he agree that it is not a question of one or two bad apples but that, in the context of the Garda, the barrel is evidently rotten at the top? We need a police force that is democratically controlled and accountable to the communities its members are supposed to serve.

I suggest to the Taoiseach that the reason he has made the mea culpa is not because he re-remembered what happened but because he got caught out by the contradiction between what he said and what was said by the Minister, Deputy Zappone-----

Hear, hear.

-----just as either the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, or Deputy O'Callaghan were caught out. Facts are stubborn things. They cannot exist in two different states at the same time.

Do I take it from the Taoiseach's response that he does not agree to Maurice McCabe's request that the six questions that have been posed be answered in advance of, or at least parallel to, any tribunal of inquiry? They are simple questions and the Government has the power to ask them of the relevant authorities and get the answers. For example, who contacted the counsellor or who was contacted by that counsellor such that this matter ended up in the domain of being put back on the Tusla file? Where did that come from? The answer will clearly establish a train of events in terms of where this comes from? Does the Taoiseach agree that the questions should be answered?

Deputy Murphy is supporting, in principle, the setting up of a tribunal of inquiry and then prejudging its outcome before it starts. That is the Deputy's position. I have pointed out already that the Government has made serious adjustments to bring about greater trust, confidence and belief in the Garda, both in terms of the restructured Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, which is a totally independent police authority, and an independent inspectorate to help create that trust and confidence that the public and gardaí themselves need in the force.

The questions posed will be answered in so far as they can but I would say to Deputy Murphy that there is clearly an interaction between the substance of a number of those questions and the tribunal of inquiry to be set up. In so far as the Department of Justice and Equality can answer from relevant information, that will be done. However, the fundamental issue is that a tribunal of inquiry must be balanced, fair to everybody, have terms of reference that include that and then be allowed to do its job. I hope that can be approved by the Dáil and by the Seanad this week so that this tribunal of investigation and inquiry can start its work at the earliest possible time.

The public inquiry should have a criminal investigation running in parallel to it and this should be pursued by police from outside the country. Many bad things have happened.

The Taoiseach said that everybody has the presumption of innocence. He has a short memory. For several years, according to the Fine Gael-Labour Government, Maurice McCabe was guilty until proven innocent. Nóirín O'Sullivan talked yesterday of a campaign of false accusations against her. Is she saying that Maurice McCabe was lying? Is she saying that David Taylor, Keith Harrison, Nick Keogh, Sinéad Killian, Eve Doherty, Donal O'Connell and others are all liars? If she genuinely did not know how whistleblowers were treated, she is not fit for the job because she did not know what was going on in the force.

In the context of the O'Higgins inquiry, she instructed her legal team to give false evidence until Maurice McCabe's tape turned that upside down. If she was innocent, why did she not sanction or discipline the two gardaí involved?

It is a long time ago. How can the Taoiseach explain that when Nick Keogh reported Garda involvement in the heroin trade in Athlone he faced five internal investigations that same year but none before that. Why? Why was the superintendent whom Nick Keogh accused of bullying and harassing him put on the promotion list? In 2014, the Garda Commissioner appointed an assistant commissioner to look at Keith Harrison's complaint. The assistant commissioner leaked information back to the superintendent who was the subject of the complaint. On foot of a different complaint involving the very same superintendent that same assistant commissioner was asked to carry out an investigation. If all this was not bad enough, when GSOC, following its investigation into the second matter, asked for disciplinary proceedings to be taken by An Garda Síochána, whom did Nóirín appoint over it? One would never guess - the same assistant commissioner.

In early 2014, a journalist contacted David Taylor when he was press officer. The journalist told him he had been to the family of the girl at the centre of the sex allegations against Maurice McCabe. He told him he had a great story which would be really damaging for McCabe. Taylor texted Callinan and O'Sullivan and told them the good news. Callinan texted him back to welcome it. Nóirín decided to ring him and have a good chat about it. This is the woman who said several weeks ago on "Today with Sean O'Rourke" that she had absolutely no knowledge and nor was she privy to any campaign to undermine any individual in An Garda Síochána. The press officer, David Taylor, who was given back his job yesterday, stated everybody in headquarters knew about the campaign against Maurice McCabe. Everybody, seemingly Taoiseach, except Nóirín. What does the Taoiseach think?

I thank Deputy Wallace. What he is doing is making his comments and he is also concluding the outcome of a tribunal of inquiry. What is the question being asked here? Was there a deliberate smearing campaign by senior gardaí against Sergeant McCabe or was there not? We can talk all we like about it in here, but it will not answer that fundamental question. Judge O'Neill was unable to determine what that truth was and he examined both of those protected disclosures in great depth and got a six-week extension to do his work. He concluded at the end of it all that he was not in a position to determine what the truth was, so he said to the Minister and the Government they had to hold a commission of investigation and gave them the terms of reference. The Government followed that faithfully, but clearly the judge appointed was also happy that the terms of reference covered agencies that might or might not be involved. The position is the Government has agreed in principle to set up the tribunal of inquiry. The question of the terms of reference, its structure, its range and all these are issues to be decided now, and I hope this matter can be accepted and approved by Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann this week and that the person to be appointed, whoever that might be, will be able to get on with his or her work and start the process of effectively finding out the answer to the central question on whether there was or was not a concerted effort of smearing Sergeant McCabe from the highest echelons of Garda Síochána na hÉireann.

Everyone says the Garda Commissioner is innocent until proven guilty. That is grand. We are not saying lock her up and throw away the key, but for God's sake take her out of the police job because she is not fit for it. I am not throwing notions plucked out of the sky at the Taoiseach. I am throwing information and facts at him. In 2008, when Maurice McCabe first raised issues of wrongdoing in An Garda Síochána and systemic problems in how the force worked, he was trying to change the culture in An Garda Síochána.

Here we are in 2017 and, sadly, the culture has not changed.

The Government did not change anything. It brought in a few changes in legislation but these were not nearly enough. It changed the Commissioner but appointed one who was at the shoulder of the other one when he called whistleblowers "disgusting". Since then she has hounded and harassed whistleblowers. It is not as if the Tánaiste was not told about this. The Government knows it is going on but it has decided to turn a blind eye. It did not want to know what is happening because it did not suit. If the Taoiseach has any interest in how we do policing in Ireland he should change it now by getting rid of the Commissioner. He should get rid of all the hierarchy too as several assistant commissioners are due for retirement. He should do as the Patten report recommended in Northern Ireland and start afresh. Let us find someone from outside the country or a civilian and get a new hierarchy from the lower members of the force who were not able to get promotion because they were clean. Let us make a fresh start before the Taoiseach retires and let us do something for policing. There was a time when Fine Gael was seen as the party of law and order but this Government has rubbished that.

I disagree fundamentally with the view of the Deputy from Wexford on this case. He said we should look outside but this was the first competition held internationally for a Garda Commissioner. The Commissioner is the first person to come through an independent competition trawled internationally for that purpose. The Deputy said we should change history. He might think he is in a position to fire everybody but this Government introduced a totally independent policing authority, the first since the foundation of the State.

Where has it been in the past two weeks?

Its function is to make senior appointments to An Garda Síochána and that is what it will do. It takes time to change perception and culture.

The authority has no power over the Commissioner.

Everybody understands the way some gardaí were perceived over the years. This is why Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring is changing the structure of GSOC to ensure people have trust and confidence in the organisation and that if they want to make complaints those complaints will be examined confidentially and be subjected to a full and thorough analysis of their value or otherwise. This Government, like the previous one, is changing the nature and the perception of the structure of the Garda, which is necessary. The Deputy can talk about it but there is now an independent police authority and a changed structure, with confidentiality in the way complaints are made and in the way business is done, all under an eminent judge. We are doing all of that to protect whistleblowers and we are having a tribunal on the central issue, namely, the alleged smearing of Sergeant McCabe on the basis of erroneous sexual allegations. The Deputy should support the holding of a tribunal of inquiry, which should be drafted in a way that is fair to everybody so that justice and truth will be the outcome.

That concludes a much extended Leaders' Questions.