Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This committee wrote to the Policing Authority before the summer to express our concerns with regard to promotions, which is one of the authority's central roles. This correspondence has not been acknowledged, which I find quite shocking given that it is one of the body's central briefs. It has been well established that to transform the culture inside the force, one needs to look at appointments at all levels. This point was made by Mr. Conor Brady. In that context, how much of an emphasis does the authority place on complaints in the system against people who are on promotion lists? The old Garda charter, which predates the authority and is still in place as far as I know, states that it is the duty of officers to make it known if someone on a promotion list is suspected or guilty of conduct making them unsuitable for that promotion. This committee brought some information to the authority regarding concerns over some people on that list who were also under investigation. How is this matter treated? What is the authority's situation there? The committee is aware that the authority received correspondence this week from the solicitor of one of the Garda whistleblowers asking whether the authority might have considered a situation whereby a complaint is made against an officer who is due on a promotion list. That person might be management's favoured candidate and a system would kick in that would allow that complaint to be lost or sidelined, so that if the question was asked whether that person was under investigation or the subject of any disciplinary procedure, the answer would be no, even though that might in fact technically be the case. Have the authority members considered a scenario in which the wool might be pulled over their eyes in this way? This was the issue put to the authority, particularly in the context of the seriousness of promotions with regard to shaking up how the system operates.