The whole idea of protected disclosures within An Garda Síochána is to allow members of the force who have legitimate complaints to detail their grievances in private.

It is not intended that the subject of any disclosures, often of the most sensitive nature, should become the subject of public debate.

Yet, while the fact that such details eventually make their way into the public domain cannot be helped, the reaction of those in public and political life certainly can.

Knee-jerk calls for resignations and blanket condemnations lead to a demeaning of the political system and erode trust in politics.

They can trivialise the contents of disclosures and complaints, reducing them to knockabout soundbites across the Dáil chamber.

Dáil privilege is nowadays often used to air serious allegations that have been investigated thoroughly elsewhere.

Issues around whistleblowers still have the potential for political potency, two years after claims made by Sgt Maurice McCabe led, either directly or along with other events, to a Minister for Justice, a Garda Commissioner and a Secretary General of the Department of Justice losing their jobs.

Unacceptable

Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald is expected to appoint a senior member of the judiciary to examine the latest allegations made by another Garda whistleblower to the effect that senior officers made serious efforts to discredit a whistleblower who raised concerns about the force.

In a statement last night, Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan said she “would like to make it clear that she was not privy to nor approved of any action designed to target any Garda employee who may have made a protected disclosure and would condemn any such action”.

The latest claims are contained in protected disclosures currently in Ms Fitzgerald’s possession, and have led to calls for the immediate resignation of Ms O’Sullivan.

It is undoubtedly the case that some whistleblowers, such as Sgt McCabe, were poorly treated but it is equally unacceptable for people to call for resignations, on foot of serious allegations that have not yet been tested.

The latest protected disclosures were only lodged this week and, while clearly serious, have been given little of the due consideration that should be afforded those who made the complaints and the people who are the subject of them.

The Garda controversies of a number of years ago, coupled with their serious political consequences, highlighted a system that was too often deaf to those who spoke up from inside, such as Sgt McCabe.

Since then, there have been substantial efforts to reform the justice system in order to increase public confidence in it and to help improve the culture of An Garda Síochána to make it a more open place for those with dissenting views and concerns about how the force is being run.

These reforms have yet to be completed and are still being bedded in.

Those who rightly championed changes in the justice system and how An Garda Síochána treated whistleblowers a number of years ago must give the reforms they pushed for time to prove their worth.

Instant calls for resignations and sanctions undermine their arguments and their cause.