Two years to replace Nóirín? It’s time for politicians to make a decision
THE expression ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ comes to mind regarding the appointment of a new Garda commissioner. Shortly after the resignation of Nóirín O’Sullivan, we were told it would take at least six months to appoint a new commissioner. Later, a period of a year was mentioned.
This week, it was suggested that if the Policing Authority and the Government agreed to a request from the chairwoman of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland, Kathleen O’Toole, to delay any appointment until after the commission has reported, we could be looking at a timeframe of 18 months.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said: ‘Two years would be too long a time to be without a fulltime commissioner.’
He could not have said a truer word. But he would not be drawn on what he believed was a reasonable timescale.
I’m in the unusual position in that I find myself in agreement with Mick Wallace when he said this week: ‘No other job in the world takes two years to fill.’
To say the least, it looks to me as if a dog’s dinner is now going to be made of this appointment, which is vital for the safety and security of our State.
In the meantime, we are now going to be left with an acting Garda Commissioner, Dónall Ó Cualáin, who has already made it clear that he is not going to be a candidate for the top job.
So we will potentially be left with a considerable vacuum, during which it is unlikely that we will see any substantial reform, which is urgently needed.
SINCE the foundation of the State, it has been the responsibility of the Government of the day to appoint the Garda commissioner. This all changed in 2015 when the Fine Gael-Labour government, in the aftermath of the so-called ‘retirement’ of the then Commissioner Martin Callinan, decided to set up the Policing Authority. This body was given, among other duties, the power to nominate a suitable candidate for appointment by the government.
One of the reasons suggested as to why the then-government diluted its own power in this respect was to respond to the perception that there had been undue political interference in previous appointments – something which was certainly not my experience during my time in government.
The setting up of the Commission on the Future of Policing in May of this year smacked of topof-the-head thinking in response to a political crisis surrounding policing issues. Why we needed a commission to look at the future of policing, when we already had the Garda Inspectorate, is beyond me. The inspectorate, which has been in place since 2006, has made many recommendations as to how to make An Garda Síochána more effective and efficient.
A recent report by the Policing Authority into the force’s implementation of recommendations of the Garda Inspectorate report, entitled Changing Policing In Ireland, was extremely critical of the pace of progress in this respect.
It strikes me that what we need is not a new body looking into the future of policing, but rather a concentration on putting in place the recommendations that have already been made.
The commission has certainly put a spanner in the works regarding the appointment of any new commissioner by writing to the Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, urging him not to hire a new commissioner until its work has been completed. I’d hazard a guess that the minister and the Policing Authority were none too pleased when Kathleen O’Toole dispatched her letter calling for a delay in the appointment of a new Garda commissioner.
On setting up this commission, the Government expressed the wish that it would bring forward early and interim recommendations. This was a forlorn hope.
Indeed, going on the words of the recently resigned member of this commission, Conor Brady, it seems clear that once this commission had been announced, it was very much left to his own devices. Brady referred to ‘political expediency’, ‘lack of urgency regarding budgets’ and said that leading members of the Government were ‘scarcely aware of its existence’, although this claim was denied.
A former minister for justice, Michael McDowell, recently referred to the setting-up of the Policing Authority in 2015 as a ‘piece of political window-dressing’. These words could equally have been used in regard to the setting up of the Commission on the Future of Policing. Its establishment got the Government over a political bump on the road at that particular time.
The fact that there are now so many inputs, potentially leading to a long delay in the appointment, will only mean that real reform will be put on the long finger. This Government is now reaping the consequences of foisting responsibility on outside agencies. All of them feel the necessity to have their voices heard.
Surely, given that most people accept that reform is not dependent on one person, they could proceed with appointing a new commissioner within a relatively short time. Any new appointment could then get on with running the police force and the policing of this State, knowing full well that future possible structural reforms will be required.
IAM on the same page as my predecessor Michael McDowell when he stated recently that real accountability for the administration of justice must lie with the government of the day and the Oireachtas.
To borrow a phrase from Boris Johnson, ‘it should not be beyond the wit of man’ (in this case, the men and women of the Oireachtas) to bring in legislation to mandate reforms, building on those that were brought in during 2005.
This should be coupled with rigid oversight before an Oireachtas committee, subject to the necessary safeguards when dealing with national security and counter-terrorism issues.
Another imperative is that the Oireachtas prioritises the increasing of resources for the Garda Síochána in order to allow any new commissioner and their team to properly implement any new reforms, while at the same time also allowing them to get on with doing their day-to-day job of policing.