The Labour leader says a culture of ‘circling the wagons’ over wrongdoing among some Gardai must be eradicated.

It follows confirmation from the Taoiseach that a number of senior Gardai have made so-called ‘protected disclosures’ to the Justice minister.

It is understood that the whistleblowing relates to the treatment of a previous whistleblower, whom they allege was subjected to a major campaign of false and damaging allegations.

Brendan Howlin says there are laws to protect whistleblowers, but change must go further: “And unfortunately it seems still to be the position, that for some guards there seems to be a culture of when somebody points to a wrongdoing you circle the wagons, you don’t address it, and that really needs to be iradicated and we need to do it now.”