Former Fianna Fáil TD and minister Pat Carey has said there are "lessons to be learned for a range of agencies" after lawyers for the Garda Commissioner apologised in the High Court for the leaking of information about an investigation relating to him in 2015.
Mr Carey has been paid substantial damages, understood to be around €250,000.
All his legal costs have also been paid, including a contribution of €75,000 from the publishers of the Irish Independent.
Legal sources suggest the costs will far exceed the damages paid.
Mr Carey, who is now 75, sued the Garda Commissioner and the Attorney General, as well as the publishers of the Irish Independent newspaper arising out of articles published in 2015 about a garda investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse involving a former government minister.
Mr Carey was not named in the reports but claimed he had to make a public statement rejecting innuendo surrounding him after the publication.
He also said he had to step down from roles he held at the time, including his position as director of elections for Fianna Fáil.
Mr Carey sought damages for breaches of privacy and confidentiality.
He strongly rejected any allegations of wrongdoing and after a garda investigation, he was informed by the Director of Public Prosecutions that no charges would be brought against him.
Mr Carey said he had stepped aside from his public functions until he could demonstrate the allegations were false.
This had occurred, he said, but at an enormous price to him and to those close to him.
In court this morning, senior counsel Declan Doyle read an apology to Mr Carey on behalf of the Garda Commissioner.
Mr Doyle said the commissioner acknowledged that during an investigation into allegations relating to Mr Carey information in relation to the investigation found its way into the public domain.
He said the commissioner accepted this should never have happened and acknowledged it was the cause of severe and wholly unjustified distress to Mr Carey and those close to him and damaged his reputation.
The apology continued that the disclosure of confidential garda information in an unauthorised and uncontrolled manner in relation to investigations was damaging to the integrity of the investigative process and to public confidence in the force.
He said the public was entitled to expect the relevant policy and procedures in place were adhered to.
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Speaking on RTÉ's Six One News, Mr Carey said he would be taking time to reflect on what the lessons from what he termed a "debacle" might be.
He added that he would contribute to a debate to "strenghten the protections that need to be put in place" to ensure that the rights of people to speak their mind and journalists to write what they need to are protected while nobody "plays fast and loose with the law".
Mr Carey said that he came out as a gay man before the marriage equality referendum in 2015, and was subsequently appointed as Fianna Fáil's director of elections for the 2016 general election.
He said there "seems to be a persistent undercurrent of suggestion" that the leak of information "was done deliberately" to damage him in his role as director of elections and to "cause as much reputational damage by extension to the Fianna Fáil party as possible".
The allegations "came like a bolt out of the blue", he said, and he decided to stand aside from his party and voluntary roles as a result.
Asked whether he was angry about what happened, Mr Carey said that he probably is, but he does not get angry easily as it is not a solution to most things but rather, he feels "let down".
"Most of the people whose names were on those stories, I would have known them reasonably well through various involvements down through the years," he said.
"To think that somebody that you had regard for would be in some way complicit in attempting to destroy you, because that is what the objective of this excise was.
"Very powerful organisations that were capable of inflicting fatal blows, they went very, very close to doing it".
Taoiseach Leo Varardkar paid tribute to Mr Carey in the wake of the interview, describing him as a "thoroughly decent man who was falsely accused" and has now been vindicated.
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'Gravest allegations'
In an earlier statement, Mr Carey said he had been subjected to "the gravest allegations", his character had been vilified and his good name destroyed.
The former minister said those who knew him, knew there was no substance to the allegations.
But he said the scale of the publicity meant he chose to step aside from his public functions in the interests of others until he could demonstrate the allegations were false.
This had now occurred, he said, but at an enormous price to him and to those close to him who had put up with so much over the last seven-and-a-half years.
Mr Carey said he had now fully resumed his public duties and welcomed the end of the litigation.
He said he particularly welcomed the apology from the Garda Commissioner and the vindication shown by the payment of substantial damages and his entire costs.
Mr Carey said he had been targeted because of his prominent position in public life, but he said he was not seeking special treatment. He said no citizen should have their fundamental rights violated.
He said the last seven-and-a-half years had been extremely difficult, but he was fortunate that he had the support of those close to him, including his partner of 11 years, Wai, his friends, family and legal team.
Mr Carey said he hoped lessons would be learned from the wrongful treatment he had been subjected to and that no other citizen would have their rights violated in such a way in the future.
in a statement, the publishers of the Irish Independent, Mediahuis Ireland, said they welcomed the conclusion of the case. Mediahuis claimed the original article was "on a matter of public interest" and said it did not identify Mr Carey.
Mediahuis said it recognised it was a difficult period for Mr Carey. It said it took its duties and obligations as a news publisher very seriously and said it would continue to publish articles that were in the public interest "in a manner that was appropriate and responsible".
Mr Carey was a TD for Dublin North West from 1997 to 2011.
He became minister for community, equality and gaeltacht affairs in 2010 and also served as minister for transport as well as minister for communications, energy and natural resources. He lost his seat in the 2011 general election.
