It’s time for a new Garda commissioner

IF EVER you needed a template for how not to comply with the laws of corporate governance, you need look no further than the probe into the accounts of the Garda College in Templemore. The breaches of correct procedures and, in many cases, laws every other firm and agency in the State must comply with, is staggering.

The interim audit on financial procedures at the college will, as we reveal, show how multiple bank accounts were opened, including one in 2015 that violated the Act governing Garda practice; how funds were transferred to and from the canteen accounts for items unrelated to food preparation; and even how revenue from a farm owned by the college was kept rather than transferred to the State.

Any of these breaches would be lamentable in a State agency, but when committed by the Garda Síochána, the very body charged with upholding the law, including financial compliance, the situation is very grave indeed.

This week, we learned more about Garda mismanagement, when it emerged breathalyser figures were grossly exaggerated. These are the latest in a series of allegations that show the force’s management utterly adrift, unable to keep its own house clean, never mind keep the country safe.

The Taoiseach reiterated his confidence in Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan yesterday, but also said he expected a full and frank statement from her. It sounds like shorthand for the fact that her days are numbered, as they should be. There’s no use trying to catch rain with a fork, which is what she is trying to do. She is too embedded in the culture to be taken seriously when she says she can change it. We need a new commissioner, recruited from outside the force, or the jurisdiction. Someone untainted by the past who can give us the 21st-century Garda Síochána we need.