Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----a "heavy gang" within the Garda who brutalised people in custody; serious miscarriages of justice; wrongful convictions and the abandonment of the principle that all citizens, including suspects, held in Garda custody, must have rights in our justice system. It was also evident in the Kerry babies case; in the behaviour of some gardaí in Donegal that was exposed by the Morris tribunal; in the oppressive regime imposed on communities in Rossport, in the Taoiseach's own constituency; and in the Kieran Boylan affair where senior gardaí protected a drug smuggler. It was evident in the failure to investigate properly murders such as that of my colleague in Donegal, Councillor Eddie Fullerton, in 1991. There is now an opportunity to change all of this. That means creating an independent, accountable and transparent Garda Authority. Sinn Féin welcomes the Government's belated conversion to the necessary reform but it is worth noting that neither Fine Gael nor Labour put it in the programme for Government. If the Government has come to that position now and if we see fundamental change the Irish people will at least have some sense of reassurance out of the mess of recent years.

No police service, no senior police officer and no Garda Commissioner should be solely accountable to a politician, no matter who that is. The Garda Commissioner should be fully accountable to an independent policing board, to the Oireachtas and to local joint policing committees, which should be much stronger than they are now. Policing in this State has been too long locked into structures that obstruct the building of a modern, 21st century, accountable policing service. I ask the Minister to play his part in building it by stepping aside. The Garda confidential recipient and the Garda Commissioner have walked the plank, now it is time for the Minister to walk the plank to restore public confidence in the administration of justice so that we can collectively rebuild a modern police service for the 21st century.

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