The Garda oversight mechanisms put in place after the Morris tribunal a decade ago exposed serious corruption across the force have failed, Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has said.
As a first step in a radical overhaul of policing, Ms Fitzgerald has given the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) power to investigate complaints by whistleblowers. She also signalled yesterday that the commission would be given a range of additional powers of investigation.
Plans set out by the Minister to strengthen GSOC suggest that the commission has gained the upper hand in a long-running difficult relationship with senior management in the force and Garda representative bodies.
Questions raised
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) said last night it "rejects" Ms Fitzgerald's plans for GSOC to investigate whistleblowers' complaints. AGSI general secretary John Redmond said the move raised questions as to the credibility of Ms Fitzgerald's approach to Garda reform.
In a Dáil debate yesterday on last week’s Guerin report, the Minister said she was considering introducing all of the proposals that GSOC has set out for itself to make it a much stronger Garda watchdog.
These include being able to investigate the Garda commissioner; to investigate Garda practice and procedures of its own volition without being dependent on a request from the minister for justice; and addressing the high number of complaints to GSOC about Garda members that are referred back to the force for investigation due to lack of resources.
While those measures were not decided, the tenor of Ms Fitzgerald’s address suggested that, in the battle for supremacy between the Garda and GSOC, the commission has very much gained ground under the new Minister.
“Time passed and systems failed,”Ms Fitzgerald said.
“That’s the truth of it. And that’s a truth that should inform our thinking from now on. We must never be seduced into believing that a once-in-a-lifetime radical reform is enough.”
She believed the oversight and governance of the Garda Síochána “will be transformed with the establishment of an independent Garda authority”.
Ms Fitzgerald also said “the highest levels of legal support and protection will be given to Garda whistleblowers.
She again stressed the vacant Garda commissioner post would be advertised externally, opening it to candidates not currently in the force.
During yesterday’s Dáil debate, details of allegations made by another Garda whistleblower emerged. It was alleged that this whistleblower had gone to the interim confidential recipient and claimed he had been targeted by colleagues after arresting a Garda drugs squad member for drink driving.
'Relentless bullying'
The whistleblower has claimed that, through "systematic and relentless bullying and intimidation and unmerited scrutiny", he had been "totally undermined and destroyed" by other Garda members.
The complainant has alleged evidence was stolen before the case went to court, where it was struck out.
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty said Garda Keith Harrison claimed that “as a result of arresting a member of the drugs unit in Athlone for drunk driving that Garda management maliciously set about targeting him while the arrested garda was afforded protection”.
