Mr Justice Peter Charleton has denounced as ‘hideous’ the domination of spin culture in Irish public life.

His Third Interim Report from the Disclosures Tribunal makes a heartfelt protest that “our public life is now to be dominated by spin and that plain speaking is elided in favour of meaningless public relations speak. 

“This is a hideous development in Irish public life,” he says bluntly.

In the section of the report dealing with deception of the media through selective leaks Mr Justice Charleton doesn’t mince his words.

“We have been brought to a situation where those who genuinely know their job are expected to put things in a form which no longer garners respect and which is far from the requirement of plain speaking.”

'Bizarre'

Mr Justice Charleton says in the report that it is “frankly bizarre” that when the former Garda Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan is asked about her approach to a matter of serious public importance, she is not left alone to answer from her own mind but instead that “comments and suggestions amounting to drafts of letters of several thousand words are whizzed over in her direction so that she can send the same thing back again.

“The public are then expected to digest this as being her utterance." 

The tribunal found this practice unworthy of our public service, its report says, pointing out that it adds to the sense of public distrust in the key institutions of the State.

Mr Justice Charleton's report exonerates former garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan of wrongdoing and says she played no part in mistreating garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe or in orchestrating a smear campaign against him. 

“She would not have been at all interested in engaging in any such nasty and discreditable conduct. That does not fit with her character,” the report says.

'Public service, not public relations'

However Mr Justice Charleton is scathing about other garda personnel and declares that “public service is not about public relations".

“Plain speaking by those who know what they are talking about is the only acceptable way to address the Irish people,” said Mr Justice Charleton