Manner of exit was stroke of luck for Varadkar
WHEN news of the retirement of the Garda commissioner broke on Sunday night, it brought to mind Richard Nixon’s memorable line from his self-proclaimed “last press conference” 55 years ago. “You don’t have Nixon to kick around any more,” the defeated gubernatorial candidate famously (and none-too-presciently) told the assembled media.
Nóirín O’Sullivan is far too dignified to utter such words, but she wouldn’t be human if she wasn’t thinking it. So too surely was Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The Opposition and the media wouldn’t have the outgoing commissioner to kick around anymore. Nor, by extension, the Government.
The frenzy surrounding O’Sullivan’s position in recent months was akin to that faced by an England football manager whose team underperforms at a major tournament. It just stopped short of the ‘In the name of God, Go’ front-page headline that once greeted the beleaguered Bobby Robson.
The question ‘do you have confidence in the Garda commissioner, Taoiseach/minister/ deputy (delete as appropriate)?’ was asked with such monotonous regularity during each of the many crises to afflict the force, it had long passed the point of parody.
But the affirmative response from Government was unwavering, albeit in tandem with a distinct sense there was a particular lack of enthusiasm each time on the part of the person answering. It was clear the calculation had been made: there could be no repeat of the circumstances of Martin Callinan’s departure.
Made, no doubt after careful deliberation. Because there were options. Varadkar had a short window of opportunity after becoming Taoiseach to remove O’Sullivan.
In the honeymoon period of office, and with his track record of speaking up for Garda whistleblowers, he would have had the authority to do so. There was a feeling among Government backbenchers at the time that it would be a bold move from the new leader, signalling a real point of difference from his predecessor, who muddled from one crisis to another in relation to gardaí.
However, the Taoiseach opted for caution. Some of it was probably out of personal regard for O’Sullivan. She had both admirers and detractors in Cabinet. But there would have been a general feeling in Government that she had an impossible job and that removing her would do little or nothing to solve the obvious problems in the force. There would also have been a reluctance to be seen to dance to the tune of some of the more left-wing elements in the Oireachtas baying for her blood.
But it was much more than that. One commissioner had already been effectively pushed out in contentious circumstances. The Taoiseach made the call that to lose one in such fashion might be deemed unfortunate, to lose a second in a similar manner would be not just careless, but potentially politically catastrophic – particularly for a Government led by Fine Gael, the supposed party of law and order.
THE brand of An Garda Síochána has undoubtedly been damaged in recent years. But there remains widespread public support for the force. It’s still a big organisation with an even bigger reach. No government, politically, wants to be on the wrong side of it. Certainly not a Fine Gael government.
O’Sullivan may not have been universally loved among the rank and file but that didn’t mean individual gardaí would like the idea of her, or the force, being used as a political football. So the decision was taken to ride out the storm. Regardless of what emerged about An Garda Síochána – and much did – there would be no emissary dispatched in the dark of night. There wouldn’t even be the gentlest of pushes, not publicly at least. The Government would just have to live with the heat and accept it as the lesser of two evils.
It proved the right call. It helped that Varadkar got lucky.
O’Sullivan, understandably given the horrendous pressure she must have been under, decided that enough was enough and bowed out – just when it seemed to some she might hang in there, for another while at least. No wonder the overriding feeling in Government Buildings this week is one of relief.
A major headache has been eliminated without any blame attached to the Government.
Varadkar and Charlie Flanagan, who has brought a calmness and steadiness to the Department of Justice, can be satisfied with the outcome.
Suddenly an issue which threatened to dominate Varadkar’s tenure – as it had for the second half of Enda Kenny’s – was effectively sidelined. That’s not to say the difficulties with An Garda Síochána are over – far from it. It’s clear there’s more to come in terms of bad news. But the lightning rod for controversy, which O’Sullivan had (probably unfairly) become, is gone.
When the next problem emerges, the Government can say that such matters will be addressed as part of a new commissioner’s reform programme and as part of the deliberations of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland.
Politically speaking, the issue has been parked. Barring accidents, it’s likely to stay that way until after the next general election.
The Government will need to be careful about staying out of the process of appointing O’Sullivan’s successor (other than perhaps signalling flexibility in relation to salary). It must be, and be seen to be, the preserve of the Policing Authority.
Also, given the strong likelihood the new commissioner will come from outside the country, consideration will be given to the idea of separating out intelligence operations from An Garda Síochána.There will be resistance to such moves and that could be tricky enough, again particularly so for a Fine Gael Taoiseach. But not as tricky as what the Government has just come through.
First, water charges and now the Garda commissioner – two hugely thorny issues largely resolved. The odds on the 32nd Dáil lasting into 2019 have just got shorter.