The Disclosures Tribunal has heard that a catalogue of errors occurred when a HSE counselling service tried to correct and retrieve an incorrect child sexual abuse allegation it had passed on about Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
The tribunal is hearing continued evidence from Fiona Ward, HSE line manager to Laura Brophy of the Rian Counselling Service.
Ms Brophy made the original error in 2013 by incorrectly inflating the severity of a historical abuse allegation made against Sgt McCabe.
Counsel for the tribunal, Patrick Marrinan, said a catalogue of errors was occurring in May and June 2014 when the HSE tried to correct the mistake.
He said people were talking at cross purposes and Ms Ward was working under a misapprehension, because no one had told her that the notification from Ms Brophy which was sent to the gardaí was the wrong one and was for Tusla's eyes only.
He said Tusla compounded the original error by sending an incorrect notification to the gardaí.
Ms Ward also said that in an email, Ms Brophy told her of a conversation she had with Eileen Argue, head of social services from Cavan.
Ms Argue told Ms Brophy that she had spoken to the chief superintendent and that she had asked for the return of all copies of the incorrect report ,but she could not guarantee that the chief superintendent would do so.
Ms Argue was also told that no action had yet been taken on foot of the incorrect report and the alleged perpetrator had not been contacted.
Ms Ward also said that during her contacts with Chief Superintendent James Sheridan he asked for clarification on whether this was a new disclosure or an old one relating to 2006, which had been investigated with a file sent to the DPP.
Ms Ward wrote to him saying it was the first time for Rian but the client had already reported the allegation.
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She advised him to check with Tusla. She told him the error was that it related to a different client and a different alleged perpetrator.
Ms Ward was also asked if she formed the impression that the gardaí were trying to make improper use of the incorrect report and she said she did not think so.
Mr Marrinan asked if she was suspicious that all this had happened when Sgt McCabe was in the public gaze for whistleblowing. She said she would not have had any concern.
He also asked whether it had the potential to open up an old wound and whether there was any sense the gardaí were trying to do this and she replied that from her dealings, the gardaí wanted to clarify whether it was related to an old report.
Tribunal told McCabe's reputation shredded
During cross-examination Michael McDowell, SC for Sgt McCabe, said that if any sensible, face-to-face interaction had occurred between Ms Ward's department and the gardaí, the magnitude of the error and the fact of the error would have become apparent.
Ms Ward said: "you could say that yes".
He said that instead, the accusation had taken on a life of its own and landed in the social work section in Cavan.
He also said that Ms Ward's response to the chief superintendent on whether the error was new, was less than 100% careful.
Ms Ward said she had no intention of withholding information.
Mr McDowell said she left the chief superintendent completely in the dark as to how it happened.
She said she was not trying to protect anyone and was clear that they had made a error.
He said that Sgt McCabe was the primary victim of a catastrophic mistake and Ms Ward said she could accept the gravity of the error and apologise for what occurred.
Mr McDowell said Sgt McCabe's reputation was being privately shredded.
