Minister calls Garda chief an ‘incredible’ role model for women
CONTROVERSIAL Garda Commissioner, Nóirín O’Sullivan, was last night hailed as ‘an incredible role model for women’ by a Cabinet minister.
The Minister for Employment and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, declared her full confidence in the scandal-plagued commissioner.
‘I have confidence in her and, not just because of her long, sterling record of service to the country and An Garda Síochána, but because she wants the job,’ she said.
The minister’s comments came despite the recent escalation of the breath test scandal and other controversies.
‘She is there a long time and she has the vision and the grit which is needed,’ she said.
The minister was speaking at the Kennedy Summer School in New Ross, Co Wexford, last night. Responding to questions from broadcaster Sarah McInerney, who was chairing a political panel discussion, Ms Doherty said Ms O’Sullivan’s ambition was to change a force in which most Irish people had lost some of their confidence.
Changing the culture ‘could not be done overnight’, she added. However, Fianna Fáil’s Justice spokesperson, Jim O’Callaghan, yesterday demanded that Ms O’Sullivan do the right thing and step aside. This was after it was revealed last Wednesday that gardaí entered 1.5million invented breath tests in their Pulse computer system. ‘I think it would have a good impact on the public confidence in An Garda Síochána if, as a result of these reports, an individual at the top was held accountable and said: “Listen, I may not be personally responsible for this, but part of it happened on my watch, and I’m now the head of the force, and I’m going to take responsibility and resign because of the failings”,’ he said.
An internal audit by Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan found that 1,458,221 drink and drug-driving checks from 20092016 were fabricated. Some 3,498,400 tests were recorded on Pulse, but only 2,040,179 were actually carried out. Earlier this year, Gardaí said that 933,000 false breath tests had been recorded between 2011 and 2016.
The audit blamed three factors for the gross exaggeration of statistics: recording issues, suspected inflation of numbers, and estimation of numerical data.
Despite her current woes, Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday in an interview with TV3 that Ms O’Sullivan still had the Government’s confidence.