High salary won’t guarantee a good Garda commissioner
I write in connection with the wild rash of comments regarding the now vacant position of Garda commissioner, who should replace the former office holder, and that a higher salary would need to be offered to a replacement.
Is a higher salary or a person from outside the force or outside the jurisdiction going to get a better person for the position?
I say it would be highly unlikely and I also believe there are excellent officers within the ranks of An Garda Síochána capable of providing the leadership needed.
Politicians are queuing up to tell us what is required. Róisín Shortall stated: “It’s time for exceptional measures, starting with the recruitment of a whole new senior management team – some of whom should be recruited from outside the jurisdiction.”
Regarding the present team, she said: “They need to ask themselves if they are part of the problem”, without explaining that all the members of senior rank within the Garda Síochána have been appointed by politicians, some with a Fine Gael background, others with a Fianna Fáil, Labour or with some coalition agreement. Not many would make their way up the promotion ladder otherwise, so let us have a bit of honesty from the politicians.
Mary Lou McDonald stated: “There needs to be some soul-searching.” To that, I would suggest she starts that policy within her own ranks.
Tony Fagan Enniscorthy, Co Wexford
The unacceptable odium heaped on the Garda by Sinn Féin, of all people, goes to show that Ireland has such a very short memory that this can be allowed.
We know only too well the form of ‘policing’ the so-called ‘republican movement’ has been associated with in the recent past.
Robert Sullivan Bantry, Co Cork