Just what must Nóirín do to get the boot?

BEFORE he was elected governor of Louisiana in 1983, Edwin Edwards smugly declared: ‘The only way I can lose this election is if I am found in bed with a live boy or a dead girl.’ He won. And in September 2017, a variation of Governor Edwards’ conceit has surfaced in Dublin: What would Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan have to do for the Government to ask for her resignation?

Not 1.5m faked breath-tests or financial chicanery in the Garda training college in Templemore… Not even the fact that 15,000 motorists were wrongly convicted has dented the Government’s confidence in her.

Ms O’Sullivan agrees with the Government’s judgment that none of the aforementioned – and a litany of other outrages – deserve a P45 or merit the Government seeking her resignation.

But then again we all know that Ms O’Sullivan applied for a job in Europol – a definite clue that she is as unhappy in the job as others are with the prospect of her remaining on as Garda commissioner.

When she is actively seeking job opportunities elsewhere, it is unfair to keep her in a job she clearly wants to leave. More importantly, letting her retain her position is an affront to the many who believe she should go.

THIS week the Government continued to publicly support Ms O’Sullivan, while privately telling friends that she will be ‘gone by Christmas’. Ministers are briefing journalists and backbenchers that the Policing Authority report expected in a few months will make it impossible for Ms O’Sullivan to remain as commissioner.

Hiding behind the Police Authority will allow the party of law and order to tell its supporters that Fine Gael did not dispatch two Garda commissioners on its watch.

The ignominy that would follow Fine Gael firing not one but two commissioners is something the Taoiseach and his ministers cannot contemplate.

Therefore, the Cabinet will arrange for the Policing Authority to press the button on the ejector seat where they so carefully placed another cushion for Ms O’Sullivan last week.

That says a lot about the craven character of the Government – and perhaps even more about the commissioner’s arrogant defiance while at the epicentre of a professional scandal. Since its foundation, An Garda Síochana has won the respect of the public by its excellence in handling big-ticket items – facing down the IRA and other subversives and cracking organised crime.

In recent years, however, it has failed in day-to-day duties, such as traffic policing – a gravely serious letdown. The majority of the public would never be on the wrong end of an encounter with a member of the gardaí, but for issues that arise concerning their cars and driving.

And when motorists and their families see the indifference with which officers permitted 1.5 million fake breath tests and nearly 15,000 motorists to be wrongly convicted, many cannot help but distrust a police service that they fear can act arbitrarily.

The senior ranks that allowed such bad administrative habits to go unchecked must stand up and take responsibility for their indolence and incompetence.

DESPITE all that, a substantial majority of the public still trusts and respects the gardaí they meet in their day-to-day lives – and the Government has a duty to uphold that precious relationship. Just as the Government must protect the outstanding historical record and achievements of An Garda Síochana, it should tackle the current problems head on. Where there is a will, there is a way – so, failure to act, shows a distinct absence of will.

The problem is that the Government has relocated its duties to the Policing Authority – just as an earlier government outsourced its responsibility for health to the HSE.

The scandal is not so much a case of lions led by donkeys but of decent men and women directed by incompetent cynics in Garda HQ – aided and abetted by inept cowards in Government Buildings.