COMMENT

We must create a properly funded, singular policing authority which is free from the meddling of TDs

WHAT to do with the Garda Síochána? Speaking at that most pointless of political events, the political party think-in, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar resoundingly declared that he believed there should be individual accountability within An Garda Síochána over the false breath test reports that have, once again, befuddled a nation.

Noting that such accountability should not just relate to rank-and-file members of the force but also to management, the Taoiseach went on to say he would wait to see the Policing Authority’s report on the issue before his Government decides on the ‘best action to be taken’.

Varadkar also said he was not satisfied that enough people within the force had embraced the need for change. But why would they, one might well ask, when the political class that runs this state hasn’t changed its own attitude to gardaí?

The control of policing in Ireland basically begins and ends with the Government of the day. Notwithstanding the establishment of the Policing Authority in 2015, and the Commission on the Future of Policing earlier this year, it is still essentially the Government that controls how Ireland is policed.

Up until the beginning of 2016, all appointments to the rank of assistant commissioner, chief superintendent and superintendent were made by the government of the day.

Problems with the Garda are not a recent phenomenon. Allegations of corruption, collusion, incompetence, brutality, and political interference in its running have been common themes throughout the force’s history.

But that force is now facing a grave crisis.

THIS week’s report by the Policing Authority that only nine of a reported 50 reform initiatives had actually been completed – despite the view of senior gardaí that all 50 had been accomplished – reveals an astonishing disconnect between the Garda and the independent body established to oversee Garda performance.

It’s also clear that rank-andfile gardaí view themselves as untouchable –judging by the extraordinary interview the Garda Representative Association spokesman John O’Keeffe gave to RTÉ on Thursday.

O’Keeffe insisted GRA representatives did not falsify figures relating to the number of alcohol breath tests taken between 2009 and 2017, although these were exaggerated by the amazing figure of 1,458,221.

Rather, this was an elevation of the figures by members of the GRA at the behest of senior and middle management and no blame could be attached to any individual garda – as they were told that if they did not elevate the figures there would be some sort of repercussions. All this was said with a straight face. But no one should be surprised by O’Keeffe’s brazenness.

After all, the senior ranks already absolved themselves of any blame when last week’s report by Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan noted that Garda management did not gain from the massive exaggeration of these tests.

So, senior management gained nothing from the extra 1.5 million tests and your average GRA member felt pressurised into actually recording tests that never took place. But ultimately, no one is at fault.

The GRA’s extraordinary bullish statement that it would mount a series of legal challenges to protect individual gardaí if they were subjected to disciplinary proceedings, was a warning shot across the bows of management.

Given the sheer scale of the exaggeration, it would seem that a vast amount of internal investigations would have to take place. This issue would seem to be destined for the scrapheap of institutional forgetfulness. The Government only has itself to blame. For too long, successive administrations have treated the gardaí as political capital.

For instance, last June Transport Minister Shane Ross luxuriated in the announcement of the reopening of Stepaside Garda Station – one of the 139 stations closed by the last Fine Gael-Labour government. Stepaside is in Mr Ross’s constituency and his efforts to have it reopened were central to his reelection campaign. Ross’s emotional calls to get the station reopened easily outstripped the calm, rational arguments put forward by his constituency rival, former justice minister Alan Shatter, for why it had been closed in the first place.

SHATTER’S plan for reform of Garda stations was to have large and modern stations manning large areas. Ross’s utopia was to have a station in every community or, well, at least one in Stepaside. Ross topped the poll in the election and Shatter lost his seat. To no one’s great surprise, Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan recommended the reopening of Stepaside’s station. The politicians and public of Dublin Rathdown rejoiced while those everywhere else wondered how Stepaside had been chosen.

Now, three months later, O’Sullivan has retired and we learned from Friday’s Irish Examiner that over a quarter of all Garda stations – 156 in total – are still not connected to the force’s IT network and have no direct access to the infamous Pulse system where offences such as the increase in burglaries in Stepaside and the extra million and a half breathalyser tests are recorded. Stepaside might be reopened but it is clear many stations are not fit for purpose and there is only a vague commitment to examine the lack of connectivity of various archaic stations in the Garda Síochána Modernisation and Renewal Programme of 2016-2021. It would seem Shatter was right all along.

We have a police force at odds with itself, whose statistics cannot be relied upon and which seems to view the Policing Authority as a slight irritant.

That authority itself remains shockingly subservient to the Government in that most of its limited powers are subject to ministerial veto. And we still have a political class who seem only to care about policing in regard to their own constituencies being looked after.

Ireland is awash with agencies concerned with policing – the Policing Authority, the Garda Inspectorate, the Garda Ombudsman, the Garda Inspectorate, the Commission on the Future of Policing and, ultimately, the Justice Minister. All are, in some way, accountable to the Oireachtas. What the Garda, Government and, most importantly, the country needs is a properly funded, singular policing authority with appropriate independent oversight procedures and a mandate to deliver and preside over effective Garda governance. Like much else, it is the gift of the Government to deliver this.

That, Taoiseach, is ‘the best action to be taken’.