Garda whistleblower Lois West said she was forced to take leave from work because she was “terrified” of a new civilian official installed as the head of the Garda analysis bureau after she testified to the Oireachtas about errors in homicide data.

Ms West told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Thursday that she later learned an assistant commissioner had gone as far as searching the apartment of the newly hired head of the Garda Siochána Analysis Service (GSAS) after he was seen leaving the office with a “bulging” rucksack.

Her lawyers say she regarded the civilian official, Laurence Scanlan, as “unstable and a national security risk” – but that Garda chiefs penalised Ms West by failing to put any protective measures in place after she repeatedly complained about him.

Ms West, who was joint deputy head of GSAS at the time, is pursuing complaints under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014; the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005; and the Payment of Wages Act 1991 against the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána, the Government and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

READ MORE

A barrister acting for Ms West has said she has been subject to a “stream of penalisation” ever since she and a colleague, Laura Galligan, first raised concerns about homicides being “misclassified” by the force.

They went public with their disclosures at an Oireachtas justice committee meeting in the spring of 2018.

Ms West said the level of work required of her after the...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMi2wFBVV95cUxOU2kyRE45ZVlELTZfZjJpS1JS...