Frances Fitzgerald has been accused of being too close to garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan

The justice minister disclosed the identities of two garda whistleblowers during a meeting with senior officers in the summer of 2015, security sources have revealed.

The incident is said to have raised concerns in the Department of Justice as to whether Frances Fitzgerald understood her legal obligations to protect whistleblowers.

This weekend Fitzgerald refused to comment on the incident but a spokesman insisted she had, at all times, dealt with whistleblowers strictly in accordance with her obligations under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014.

The comment was made during a meeting involving Fitzgerald and Nóirín O’Sullivan, the garda commissioner, at the Department of Justice in Dublin. According to sources with knowledge of the meeting, Fitzgerald told O’Sullivan she had received more correspondence from Keith Harrison and