DOMINO EFFECT
Ever wondered why Nóirín O’Sullivan is not just fired? Because it could have a deadly...
PRESIDENT Abraham Lincoln sacked eight generals before he found Ulysses S. Grant. Until then, his generals had been immersed in the group thinking of West Point – the US Military Academy – and would not do what Lincoln wanted: attack the Confederate Army. After Grant subsequently delivered aggressive victories, Lincoln said of him: ‘I can’t spare this man, he fights.’ Grant won the American Civil War.
Winston Churchill was also unable to find a winning general during the Second World War – he sacked many. In August 1942 he appointed the irascible and arrogant General Bernard Montgomery. He defeated Rommel at El Alamein and the Allies discovered their fighting spirit.
The Garda Commissioner is no general and we are unlikely to face a war for survival soon. Yet An Garda Síochána is under constant attack, besieged by controversy after controversy. (Not to mention the smart comments ordinary gardaí will have to face at checkpoints over this weekend).
And that’s the least of their problems. Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan is lost. We desperately want answers, a sense of assurance that this bombardment of calamities will stop, but all we get from O’Sullivan is that curse of modern life: pronouncement after pronouncement of management speak.
The Government will not sack her. Ministers tell me that they fear a constructive dismissal action by the Commissioner, and a potential claim for damages. This could be the lowest level of cowardice to which a government has descended, fearing to get rid of a hapless Commissioner because she might sue.
If the Government must sack ten commissioners and 50 senior gardaí while it is reassembling the force, so be it. The current Commissioner presided over the wrongful conviction of 14,500 motorists, many of whom will sue the State. That will cost us many millions. But this is not about money. The enormous error was appointing O’Sullivan in the first place. The origins of the current disaster lie in the manner of her appointment.
In 2014, garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe had been smeared, vilified and isolated by his colleagues.
Then garda commissioner Martin Callinan told an Oireachtas Committee that the behaviour of whistleblowers was ‘disgusting’. Shortly afterwards, Callinan was forced to resign.
O’Sullivan, his deputy, had sat beside him during this calamitous meeting and was appointed acting commissioner.
Later that year, an interview panel was set up by the Public Appointments Service to find a commissioner. Superstar civil servant Martin Fraser was one of those on the panel.
Fraser, the secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach, and the most senior civil servant in the State, advised Taoiseach Enda
Kenny during the 2014 crisis. Also on the panel was the chairperson-designate of the Policing Authority, Josephine Feehily, a career civil servant. There were 40 applications. PSNI assistant chief constable Alistair Finlay reportedly made the final shortlist. Debra Kirby, a former Chicago police officer and deputy chief inspector of the Garda Inspectorate, also did too.
Fraser helped select O’Sullivan, who had already been doing the job for eight months. Cabinet was told last week that he considered her by far the best candidate. Kenny, who had been criticised for his old world attitudes, had a new boast.
By the end of 2014 there were women in the four senior justice roles – Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald, Garda Commissioner O’Sullivan, Attorney General Máire Whelan, and Ms Feehily, chair of the Policing Authority.
A month after she became commissioner, O’Sullivan was informed of problems with penalty points prosecutions. She did not inform the Policing Authority or the Department of Justice.
Minister Fitzgerald said she did not know about the penalty points until last week.
The Garda Commissioner claims the scandalous financial mismanagement at the Garda College in Co. Tipperary is a ‘legacy’ issue. Last Sunday, this newspaper revealed the contents of the Financial Procedures in Garda College Templemore. It was dated February 2017. It referred to activities in 2015 and 2016. How is that a legacy issue?
There have been 17 reports about the Garda Síochána in the last five years. Protected disclosures by two whistleblowers are hugely critical of O’Sullivan. Many TDs want her to resign.
Cabinet last week discussed establishing reform of An Garda Síochána, similar to the Patten Commission in the North. Former Tory minister Chris Patten tore down the old RUC and reformed the PSNI. The old sectarian, discredited and shamed force was abolished and a new modern police force rebuilt.
How can that be done here with a Commissioner who has been senior managing officer in An Garda since she became a chief superintendent in 2003 and has overseen new scandals? She stays there because she is Enda Kenny’s appointment. She was chosen by Kenny’s man, Fraser. Kenny appointed her line manager, Frances Fitzgerald. She replaced Alan Shatter, who believes he was forced out of his job by the Taoiseach.
Kenny is the leader of a dysfunctional Government. He refused to resign during the last Justice and Garda scandal (just six weeks ago). He was found to have made up the content of meetings that didn’t happen and forgot those that did.
The public statements of ministers about the Commissioner diverge hugely from what they say in private.
They say if O’Sullivan goes, Fitzgerald will be so badly damaged she will have to resign.
When the Taoiseach’s two marquee female appointments are gone he will have to go too.
Kenny should have resigned months ago, so few can honestly explain the problem with any of the above scenario. A damaged and discredited Commissioner is only there because the Taoiseach is damaged and discredited.
This is another Kenny calamity made in Castlebar.
Kenny plays a bit of golf so he will know about Severiano Ballesteros, the legendary Spanish golfer. Seve was one of the most cosmically talented golfers in history. But he was also mercurial and fell out with his caddies.
Mr Kenny lacks the self-knowledge of Seve. Seve once said to another doomed caddie who had failed: ‘Please, don’t blame yourself, I’m the idiot who hired you.’