We don’t trust your data, Garda watchdog tells force
THE Garda watchdog has strongly criticised the force for providing misleading information about its progress in implementing recommended reforms.
A report by the Policing Authority found the Garda had claimed to have implemented 50 reforms but had introduced just nine.
The independent watchdog says it can no longer trust assurances from An Garda Síochána and in future will seek evidence of all of the force’s claims.
The third quarterly Policing Authority report examining the Garda’s progress on implementing key recommendations made by the Garda Inspectorate is also highly critical of the pace of reforms.
The authority, chaired by exRevenue chairwoman Josephine Feehily, said gardaí had yet to start on 33% of the recommendations contained in the Changing Policing In Ireland report and as such, the watchdog was not confident it could successfully introduce all its reforms contained within the report in the five-year timeline set out.
‘It is of concern that a significant proportion of recommendations have not, at this point (over one year into the programme) been timelined for implementation,’ the report states.
The Policing Authority claims that gardaí marked 50 recommendations as complete. However, ‘it became apparent that a number were not and this prompted the authority to seek further evidence’. It found just nine of the recommendations had been implemented, 41 fewer than indicated by the Garda.
‘This apparent uncertainty calls into question the reliability of the Garda Síochána’s reporting and the level of coordinated internal oversight of the process.’
Commenting on the findings of the report released yesterday, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said: ‘Significant improvements are required in respect of the pace of implementation of the recommendations by An Garda Síochána.’
‘I have made it clear that implementation of the ambitious reform programme must continue and, indeed, must move at a greater pace, to ensure the best possible policing services to the people of Ireland,’ he added.
A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána last night said the force ‘is determined to implement the Inspectorate’s recommendations’, adding that the process, known within An Garda Síochána as the Modernisation And Renewal Programme, was taking place in the context of ‘decades of under-investment in Garda systems, as detailed by the Garda Inspectorate’.
Separately, frontline gardaí rejected findings by Assistant
‘Ordered to elevate figures’
Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan blaming them for the falsification of breath-test figures. They claimed that senior management were responsible for the gross inflation. A report published last week found that the number of breathalyser checks conducted between 2009 and 2017 were inflated by 1,458,221. The report said a number of factors including deliberate elevation by gardaí was to blame for the incorrect recording of data.
Last night, the Garda Representative Association – which represents rank-and-file gardaí said senior Garda management applied pressure to gardaí to elevate test figures. ‘This was done in weekly meetings, in bi-weekly meetings from Chief Superintendent to Assistant Garda Commissioner level all the way down, inspector and sergeant, to the ordinary garda on the street,’ John O’Keeffe of the GRA told RTÉ’s Six One News last night.
‘They were left in no doubt that if they did not elevate these figures that there could be implications for them and their work.’
The GRA said the matter had been entirely of management’s own making and insisted its members would not be scapegoated.