An internal garda investigation has been launched into allegations that a prominent garda whistleblower, Nicky Keogh, was subject to harassment after raising concerns over serious criminality within the force, RTÉ's This Week has learned.
Assistant Garda Commissioner Michael Finn has been appointed in recent days to head up the investigation, in which a number of high-ranking gardaí have also been placed on notice that they will have to address claims contained in Garda Keogh's complaint.
Garda Keogh's solicitor told RTÉ that as well as dealing with the substantive allegation of inappropriate conduct, his client also wants to know why it took seven months for the complaint to get to the investigative stage.
The complaint had been made back in March of this year.
RTÉ has learned that Assistant Commissioner Fintan Fanning wrote to Garda Keogh in recent days offering him the option of mediation or a formal investigation and he chose the latter.
The case came to public attention when Garda Keogh's solicitor gave an interview on 'This Week' last month, in which he revealed that his client had no idea what had happened with a bullying complaint he had lodged some six months earlier.
The appointment of Assistant Commissioner Finn follows the intervention of the head of Garda Human Resources, John Barrett, who wrote to Garda Keogh's legal team last month to say that he had taken over responsibility for the case, after it came to his attention.
Among his actions after taking over the case was to write to the Policing Authority, which oversees promotions in the force, in which he repeated a question raised by Mr Keogh about whether it was possible that a bullying complaint against a senior garda could have been suppressed to conceal it from the authority.
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According to documents seen by RTÉ, Mr Barrett wrote to the authority's CEO, Helen Hall, on 13 October, to inform her that he had now taken responsibility over the case of Mr Keogh.
He is a decorated garda who has made serious allegations of criminality within the force, including collusion with a midlands drugs gang.
Garda Keogh also made a bullying and harassment claim in March of this year, but his solicitor recently raised questions about why his client had no idea whether it was being investigated.
In his letter on 13 October, Mr Barrett asked the CEO of the Policing Authority if she had any knowledge about whether a bullying investigation could have been "lost" or delayed, in order to permit a senior garda who was accused of bullying from having to answer questions when going through a promotions process overseen by the authority.
If an investigation was ongoing and a disciplinary case open, then the senior garda would have to provide this information to the authority during the promotions process.
However, if this investigation did not happen for any reason then the senior garda could avoid dealing with the matter.
Mr Keogh's solicitor John Gerard Cullen has written to senior management in the force, and the Policing Authority in recent weeks, asking why there has been no obvious development in the bullying and harassment case.
It is understood that Mr Keogh has not made a specific allegation, but his solicitor had raised the question about whether it could occur that a bullying investigation could have been delayed, key files lost or suppressed in order to conceal this information from the authority, in the case of a preferred officer.
In his letter, Mr Barrett told the authority that he was repeating this question, which had been addressed to him by Mr Keogh.
"I thought it best to draw the correspondence to your specific attention and to restate the question raised," Mr Barrett said in his letter.
He told the authority that he wanted them to send him any reply they may have to this question, given that he was now taking responsibility for dealing with Mr Keogh's case.
In other correspondence seen by RTÉ, Mr Barrett also told Garda Keogh's solicitor that he would be assembling a review team to examine the many outstanding issues relating to his initial claim of criminal wrongdoing, and he gave a commitment that Mr Keogh's pay would not be negatively affected, despite the solicitor's concerns to that affect.
