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State spend of €500k on witness protection to soar once Jonathan Dowdall freed from jail

The programme is used for those whose lives are deemed in danger after giving evidence in court against criminals

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The State spent just over €500,000 on the Witness Security Programme (WSP) this year, but the cost is expected to soar next year when Jonathan Dowdall and his family are due to enter the programme.

Data released shows the Department of Justice spent €600,000 on the WSP last year, up from €400,000 in 2021, €300,000 in 2020 and €200,000 in 2019.

The programme is used for those whose lives are deemed in danger after giving evidence in court against criminals, but it has never been particularly popular in Ireland.

The greatest amount spent on the programme was in 2016, at just over €1.3m. The spend in 2013 and 2014 was €1.2m.

Sources acknowledged it has never proved a “very popular option” for Irish trial witnesses as it involves people being relocated overseas and cutting off all contact with their previous lives.

Dowdall and his family are due to enter the programme next year, on his release from prison. The former Sinn Féin councillor turned state witness against Gerry ‘The Monk’ Hutch and gave evidence against him, alleging he was behind the Regency Hotel shooting, which claimed the life of Kinahan cartel lieutenant David Byrne in 2016.

Earlier this year, the Special Criminal Court found Hutch not guilty of the murder of Byrne, despite Dowdall’s evidence, which was dismissed by the court as “unreliable”.

Dowdall (44) was formally accepted into the WSP following an assessment by gardaí in the wake of Hutch’s acquittal last April. It is understood some logistical matters remain to be worked out and that several members of Dowdall’s family will enter the programme alongside him.

The criticism of the former councillor’s evidence did not have any impact on his admission to the programme.

On his release, he will almost certainly be relocated abroad, most likely to an English-speaking country, and will be set up with a new identity and livelihood. He will also receive limited financial support.

The security services in his new home will be responsible for Dowdall’s safety. He has been assessed as being under continuing and severe threat.

Dowdall was originally due to go on trial alongside Hutch for Byrne’s murder, but the charge was dropped after he pleaded guilty to facilitating the killing and agreed to testify against his former co-accused. Dowdall was sentenced to four years in prison for facilitating the murder.

​The WSP was set up in 1997 to combat attempts by criminals “to prevent the normal functioning of the criminal justice system”, including threats of violence and intimidation of witnesses.

It was introduced after the murder of Sunday Independent journalist Veronica Guerin, but has been openly criticised by judges and a former justice minister.

Charles Bowden and Russell Warren both testified as protected witnesses against John Gilligan over the murder of Ms Guerin, of which Gilligan was ultimately acquitted. Both witnesses were later relocated overseas under assumed identities.

In another case in 2011, a Crumlin man who gave evidence against four former criminal associates became a state witness and entered the programme along with members of his family.

A contract was put on the life of Joseph O’Brien after he gave evidence in the murder trial of John ‘Champagne’ Carroll. O’Brien, his girlfriend and his family — except for one of his sisters, who declined to participate — left Ireland following the conclusion of the trial.

The State accepted the witness played a role in Carroll’s murder. Along with his family, O’Brien was set up in another country and supplied with new identities, retrained and given jobs.

Following the failed murder trial against Gilligan, Judge Brian McCracken warned that the programme was badly thought-out, and “one of the most worrying features is that there never seems to have actually been a programme”.

Former justice minister Dermot Ahern also expressed concerns.

“Unfortunately, people who are targeted for witness protection, whatever it is in the Irish psyche, they don’t want to leave their home, they don’t want to take up their life and go to the UK or Australia and start up a new life,” he said.

This view was backed up in 2009 by then director of public prosecutions James Hamilton, who said he felt the scheme was “of limited use”.

The WSP is operated by An Garda Síochána and is overseen by the Crime and Security Section at Garda Headquarters, supported by the Special Detective Unit and other local garda resources.