Commissioner’s grip on top job loosens further

NÓIRÍN O’Sullivan’s bid to hold on to her job as Garda Commissioner has been dealt a seismic blow by the revelations of widespread errors in road traffic policing and the recording of Garda statistics.

Despite facing serious allegations in relation to the treatment of whistleblower Maurice McCabe, the Commissioner was backed by the Government to stay in the role while those matters are investigated.

This was the correct decision as Ms O’Sullivan is as entitled to due process as anybody else.

She has insisted she has done nothing wrong and the public inquiry led by Mr Justice Peter Charleton should bring some much needed clarity as to the extent of her knowledge or involvement, if any, in the alleged smearing of Sgt McCabe.

Ms O’Sullivan has insisted she is the right person to lead the force in a much needed process of transformation, both in terms of structures and culture.

However, the latest storm to engulf An Garda Síochána may be one controversy too many for the commissioner.

Just how around a million roadside alcohol tests could be recorded by the force when they did not actually take place is inexplicable to put it mildly and strikes right at the heart of the integrity of the force.

Systems failures and carelessness have been blamed for the mistaken prosecution of 14,700 people for road traffic offences, an issue Assistant Commissioner Michael Finn has taken responsibility for.

But the fact of the matter is these clangers have happened under the nose of Ms O’Sullivan.

Whatever confidence existed in official Garda statistics lies in tatters and the State will be left with a multi-million euro bill after the force quashes convictions for road traffic offences which never should have been prosecuted.

Whatever hope she has of hanging on, Ms O’Sullivan will require the support of the Policing Authority, which has been decidedly lukewarm of late. That support seems to be ebbing away, if the scathing assessment of the failings revealed yesterday is anything to go by.

In relation to the traffic cases, the authority said thousands of people have been impacted by the errors made and called on various arms of the State – the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Court Service and the Garda – to remedy matters.

On the recording of breath test figures, the authority said this was not just an academic statistical matter, but an ethical one.

“It raises serious questions of integrity for An Garda Síochána organisation and, combined with previous issues regarding inflated activity levels, erodes confidence in the credibility of Garda data generally,” it said in a statement.

The authority said the gap between Medical Bureau of Road Safety data and recorded Garda data “again raises concerns about management and supervision”.

The authority said the scale of the discrepancy was “further evidence of deep cultural problems within the Garda service – a culture in which such behaviour was possible”.