Garda chief ’s position untenable, says FF TD

Pressure on Commissioner after MoS revelations are backed by PAC evidence

THE Garda Commissioner and the upper echelons of the force face renewed pressure this weekend after a Fianna Fáil member of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee called for a ‘clean sweep’. Marc MacSharry TD was responding to astonishing testimony given to the powerful committee this week.

He said that given the evidence, which corroborated documents that Garda HR chief John Barrett previously submitted, Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan’s position was ‘untenable’.

The Irish Mail on Sunday revealed the contents of a Garda audit into Templemore training college in March, which referred to a slush fund and the mismanagement of hundreds of thousands of euro.

The MoS also disclosed the contents of a 120-page dossier that was compiled by Garda Head of Human Resources John Barrett.

A number of senior Garda management appeared at the PAC to contradict the commissioner’s account of events at Templemore.

The explosive dossier of detailed notes, memos and minutes, backing up Mr Barrett’s claims, said Ms O’Sullivan was aware of issues at Templemore a full month earlier than she had claimed in evidence to the PAC. The claim is made in a series of detailed documents about Mr Barrett’s attempts to get the force to confront the significant financial issues at the college.

Among them are the minutes of a meeting with the Commissioner, which he says lasted more than two hours, and which she testified was a ‘very brief’ meeting over a cup of tea at the Tipperary campus.

There were also allegations that the working group she claimed she set up after a 2015 meeting in Templemore was in fact set up by someone else, that extensive details of the minutes of that meeting call into question the Commissioner’s assertion that it was ‘very brief’ and a chat over a cup of tea.

This week these central claims were corroborated by other members of Garda management, including Head of Audit Niall Kelly and Head of Legal Affairs Ken Ruane.

Mr MacSharry said: ‘The position [of the Commissioner] is untenable and the systems, procedures and processes in the gardaí in terms of responsibility are a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside and enigma.

‘The Commissioner will be in to us in two weeks and there are very serious questions to answer.

‘There are various accounts of when she knew and when she acted that don’t tally with her own account when she was in with us.

‘But on a personal level, as far as I’m concerned, what is required in An Garda Síochána is a clean sweep, where most importantly the rank and file can have confidence in their own management, and morale can be restored.’

‘Various accounts don’t tally with her account’