THE BREATH TEST SCAM: WAS THERE A COVER-UP BY GARDAI?

Force denied test problems after tip-off in 2014 Repeated in 2016 letter: ‘No issues’ with testing Continually failed to tell watchdog of scandal Still has yet to hand over crucial files and data

THE Garda force was repeatedly accused last night of systematically covering up the scandal of fake breath tests logged across the country.

Several TDs told the Dáil the

force had committed a massive cover-up in relation to the breathtests controversy.

Social Democrat TD Róisín Shortall alleged: ‘Gardaí have been covering up and lying about serious crime.’ Fellow TD Catherine Murphy claimed she had been told how some quiet roads were required to produce the same level of detections as busy ones. There was a ‘magic number’ of three to be achieved from all checkpoints, she claimed, such as three breath tests, seatbelt offences and so on. And

Dún Laoghaire TD Richard Boyd Barrett said: ‘It beggars belief that it has taken three years for all of this to come out fully.

‘It would appear that senior Garda management, including the Commissioner, covered up the enormous extent of this. The revelations only came to light because of a whistleblower, and they [the force] have done their level best to suppress and to disguise the true picture over the last three years.’

Fianna Fáil TD for Carlow-Kilkenny John McGuinness agreed, telling the Dáil ‘it was a cover-up’.

Even Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald questioned whether there was ‘deceit’ and ‘collusion’ to cover up the scandal.

The false breath-test data – overstated by a million tests – made An Garda Síochána look like it was performing better than it was in tackling drink driving.

A record of events, disclosed by the Tánaiste in the Dáil though, illustrates clearly that the force minimised data it disclosed to her and other investigating bodies.

The Justice Minister’s speech also exposed how Garda top brass denied the problem was widespread, and took an excessive amount of time to address the issue nationally.

The gardaí also forgot to contact a watchdog, quietly took down claims on its website, and only disclosed the full scale of the problem when it was finally fully emerging into the public domain last week.

Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan’s response last week was to duck a press conference.

Yesterday it emerged the force first insisted there were no issues with its breath testing system in 2014. Two years later it repeated this line to Mrs Fitzgerald.

Last night the Policing Authority – one of the watchdogs over the force – expressed its outrage at the repeated failure of Garda top brass to correctly state the level of breath-test misrecording.

It is also furious that the force has still not handed over the relevant files and data on the scandal.

Yesterday the Government also announced two reviews into the fiasco. One review, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said, will examine the rootand-branch workings of An Garda Síochána. There will be a separate external investigation, likely to be overseen by the Policing Authority, into the scandal of nearly a million fake breath tests, the unnecessary summonsing of 147,000 people and 14,700 wrongful convictions.

The Tánaiste, who said she was oblivious to the scandal until last week’s media reports, added that an overhaul of the type that transformed the controversial RUC into the Police Service of Northern Ireland should occur.

Solidarity TD Mick Barry said he had been struck by the arrogance of the Commissioner’s stance that she should not resign until she had completed her reform ‘journey’, saying it was an example of the ‘brass neck of the top brass’.

The Tánaiste said she would not comment on hypotheses when asked if she would ensure that the Commissioner was sacked if the Dáil voted no confidence in Ms O’Sullivan’s conduct of her duty.

A cautious Mrs Fitzgerald added: ‘It is obvious that [breath tests] were not recorded properly by a number of gardaí and that has led to a loss of public confidence. At this point it is speculation as to what happened – was it carelessness, was it exaggeration, or was it, in fact, deceit? We need to find out what happened. Was there supervision? Was there collusion?’

But, she revealed in her damning statement, the breath-test furore had been highlighted in an anonymous

‘Brass neck of the top brass’ ‘Not yet provided with reports’

letter in April 2014. When the Garda force was asked about it, it denied any problem, insisting that ‘correct procedures were in place’.

Breath-test calibrators, the Medical Bureau for Road Safety, then wrote to the gardaí in 2015, noting the force had not ordered more breathalyser kits for two years. It was ‘to tell them the numbers did not add up,’ said Independent TD Catherine Connolly.

Only in June 2016 was the Justice Department told ‘some discrepancies’ had been identified on breath tests, with the scale downplayed. The gardaí said a 2015 audit of its Southern region had identified only a 17% discrepancy rate. But the MBRS said it informed gardaí in August/September 2015 the discrepancy rate was actually 100%.

The Minister’s damaging declaration also highlighted how An Garda Síochána indicated in June 2016 that ‘no issues’ stemmed from this audit, but said it was beginning a national audit.

Last month the gardaí indicated to Mrs Fitzgerald’s department that the national audit would be finalised in June 2017 – before leaks to the media disclosed the full scale of the scandal.

In its criticism last night, the Policing Authority said in a statement: ‘The Authority again expressed its disappointment at not being advised in a timely manner that an audit into the breathtest issues was under way.

‘Despite questioning over several months, the Authority has not yet been provided with the full internal reports or indeed a clear sense of how these matters have been handled to date within the Garda Síochána, or the status and content of the audits which have been undertaken.’

Meanwhile, a report by the Garda Internal Audit Section on a raft of financial irregularities at the Garda College in Templemore is due to be published today. The report has been widely leaked and is expected to order the closure of almost 50 bank accounts and that the college pays back hundreds of thousands of euro to the State.