GARDAÍ GET OFF SCOT-FREE ON BREATH TESTS
GARDAÍ who falsely recorded breath tests will face no disciplinary action despite ‘being sloppy, lazy and unprofessional’
Acting Garda Commissioner Dónall Ó Cualáin said yesterday that disciplinary action against gardaí over the faked breath tests, which numbered almost two million, ‘is not appropriate’ due to the scale of the breaches and the cost of possible investigations.
Mr Ó Cualáin acknowledged that this ‘will not meet the expectations of some people’, but said he had come to this decision in a desire to ‘balance the need to address the issues identified with the need to minimise the disruption to vital services we provide to the public or to expend huge amounts of taxpayer’s money that may be more usefully spent on protecting communities’.
Noirín O’Sullivan’s successor
‘Sloppy, lazy and unprofessional’
appeared before the Policing Authority yesterday where he was asked about the independent auditor’s report which determined that there had been an additional 404,700 false records identified, bringing the total amplified breath test levels to almost two million.
He said the force was offering its unreserved apologies for ‘unacceptable behavioural and governance failures which led to the widespread inaccurate recording of mandatory alcohol breath tests over an eight-year period’.
It reflected a ‘sloppy, lazy and unprofessional approach’ which was ‘made worse by a lack of appreciation of the value of data’.
This was compounded by ‘poor supervision, management, governance, systems and training’.
However, he said he was satisfied that there was no evidence of any individual members benefitting from the recording practise.
He also said it ‘must be clari- fied that no evidence of criminality has been identified in either of the reviews which were carried out’.
Acting Commissioner Ó Cualáin said he received legal advice which told him that there is ‘no legal impediment to initiating discipline’.
However, he said he has ‘decided that pursuing discipline across the entire organisation is not appropriate in this instance’.
He said while reflecting on the matter, he considered a number of factors, including; the range and extent of possible breaches, the scale of the investigative process, the passage of time and possible legal challenges.
He told the meeting: ‘Proceeding with a disciplinary approach would commence a protracted, costly and legally complex disciplinary process and I am also conscious that the Crowe Horwath report recommended a forward-facsaid: ing approach be taken rather than conducting lengthy examinations into the scale of past discrepancies.’
Mr Ó Cualáin said he would write to each senior officer in the organisation to ‘outline the unacceptable nature of what occurred and directing that there be no repetition’.
Policing Authority chair Josephine Feehily yesterday
‘People will feel let down’
told the Garda delegation that she acknowledged the apology made to the wider community and said that the Policing Authority ‘accept it’.
However, she did warn that the Authority would be ‘keeping a close on performance and underperformance issues’. Speaking on last night’s RTÉ Six One News, Ms Feehily ‘I can understand how people will feel perhaps somewhat let down.
‘On the other hand, community confidence and trust in the guards and the guards is really very strong in Ireland, so there isn’t a huge public outcry for public floggings in this regard. What there is, is a public demand for better management of the organisation and better delivery of policing services.’
The report published by auditors Crowe Horwath earlier this month determined that there was ‘significant pressure within the organisation to be seen to deliver against targets that were set’.
The report also said that the ‘pressure to record improving results and unrealistic expectations of performance were central factors which drove the recording of false or inflated information’.