A foreign outsider at the helm could f ix the Garda

MINISTER for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan may want to review the last reel of the classic feminist film Thelma & Louise where the heroines drive over a cliff. Director Ridley Scott wanted to change the ending and have Louise shove Thelma out of the car before they both plunged to their deaths – but only Frances Fitzgerald can credibly identify with the Louise character.

In the final edit both women die, so the minister must be considering her options as the latest whistleblower crisis threatens an apocalyptic end to both their careers.

The Minister for Justice appears tied to her Garda Commissioner in an umbilical pact and the Taoiseach needs Frances Fitzgerald to prevail. Losing two justice ministers in similar circumstances would show his judgment to be as questionable as theirs.

Of course, everyone is entitled to ‘due process’ but through the current crisis in justice, process is long overdue – and ‘due process’ is also a metaphor for a minister as indecisive as the Taoiseach who appointed her.

Minister Fitzgerald’s prompt appointment of retired judge Iarfhlaith O’Neill may be an indication that she is beginning to get to grips with the urgency the crisis demands.

I understand that lawyers for a very senior member of the Garda are reading a potentially devastating report making further serious allegations about the gardaí, which is due to be submitted directly to the minister.

Coming on top of the claims of Superintendent David Taylor, a former head of the Garda Press Office who was suspended last year, the latest litany of allegations from an even more senior member of the force ratchets up pressure on the Commissioner.

It is understood that the latest report, like Supt Taylor’s, is seeking an inquiry under Section 42 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 that would bypass the Garda Commissioner and go directly to the Justice Minister.

The Commissioner says she knew nothing about the allegations made by Supt Taylor but even a cursory scan of them is alarming.

Supt Taylor admits engaging in a campaign to spread the same vile untruths that former Commissioner Callinan shared with an influential politician in a car park to discredit whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.

Supt Taylor claims he was acting on the instructions of more senior gardaí. And in a meeting with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, he is understood to have revealed details about the substance of the allegations.

In May last year, Supt Taylor was arrested very publicly on suspicion of leaking material to the media about the apparent abduction of two Roma children, then suspended on a reduced salary; no charges have been preferred against him.

CHIEF Superintendent Jim McGowan, the husband of the Commissioner, led the special unit of the Garda investigating leaks to the media that arrested Supt Taylor. It is understood that Supt Taylor told the Fianna Fáil leader he is concerned because he no longer has access to the evidence he says supports his allegations: it is in computers and telephones seized by the gardaí who arrested him.

Other senior members of the Garda wondered at the time why Supt Taylor could not have been questioned under caution rather than be held in a cell after television crews had been alerted. The campaign that Supt Taylor claims he was instructed to lead circulated the smears about Sgt McCabe to members of the Garda – and many gardaí still privately use the weasel-worded ‘no smoke without fire’ excuse to express their doubts about Sgt McCabe.

Gardaí alerted by a text campaign privately confirmed doubts to others about McCabe, while other senior members briefed influential politicians; if proven, it would be an appalling vista.

They are still just allegations, but a sworn statement made by two gardaí was withdrawn from Judge Kevin O’Higgins’s inquiry after it was contradicted by a secret tape recording made of the interview by Sgt McCabe.

This alarming information didn’t appear to provoke urgent action from the minister or the Garda Commissioner. Maybe they have moved heaven and earth to see justice done out of public sight, but perhaps ‘due process’ delayed any subsequent action.

Is the Garda Commissioner sitting at the wrong side of an appalling vista or is she an innocent, taking the blame for systematic criminality in the police service she leads?

IT CANNOT be a coincidence that the most senior job in the Department of Justice has remained vacant for the past two years when the civil service has many able candidates who could fill the post. Senior civil servants roll their eyes and say, who would want to be secretary general of a dysfunctional department where scandals and screw-ups are endemic?

The department clearly needs reform if it is to be administratively effective overseeing the Government’s policy on policing.

It appears that the Garda needs much more than sticking-plaster solutions and the establishment of a Garda Inspectorate, Gsoc and a Policing Authority to quell public concerns.

Maybe it’s time for political leaders to grasp the nettle and import talent from abroad to reform the leadership, management and lift morale in the force. Why couldn’t a suitably qualified man or woman with a track record of success in, say, the United States, who has knowledge of, and affection for, this Republic be Garda commissioner?

It would be very controversial in a public service where the culture is rightly suspicious of radical change – but it is no more culturally difficult in this global age than when GAA teams began choosing managers from a different county.

We can no longer hope that time and goodwill can solve our grave problems in policing – we tried that and look where it has left us.