Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in to the committee. They come in to us very regularly. Before I start today I wish to raise one point. I appreciate that other colleagues and the deputy commissioner have already mentioned it but, especially on the day that is in it, I believe it is worth putting it on record.

Listening to news reports on what it really is like to serve in An Garda Síochána offers perspective and reminds us of the debt of gratitude that we owe the Garda, because there is no other profession where members go out to work daily to serve the community and put their lives at risk. This morning shows that there is a core of men and women to whom we owe an incredible debt and thanks each day, and that includes people at all levels of An Garda Síochána.

It is disappointing, as a member of the Committee on Justice and Equality, to listen to report after report and comment after comment on various things which have occurred. Everyone has alluded to there being almost a sense of fatigue about repeatedly asking questions,, so I do not intend to do that today. We have reached a point where, through inquiries and so on, I have a very good idea of what happened. Deputy Clare Daly has referred to this, but I want to note that the one thing I do not buy is the lack of supervision on how this happened. It annoys me when I hear that because it somehow implies that a lack of supervision at sergeant level or similar in stations was at the heart of this. There was a systemic failure of management in An Garda Síochána and it did untold damage because it created a culture at all ranks that made something which, when one steps back to look, is unacceptable, where people who signed up to do all the things I referred to, namely, serving the community and putting themselves at risk in so doing, were put in a situation where they were distorting the truth, falsifying information, and doing the type of things that they were employed to stop happening. That failure of management was one of the greatest disservices to the institution of An Garda Síochána.

There will be a new Commissioner and new structures are in place. I am pleased to hear about some of the work on ethics which is being put in place. There is now a Policing Authority which was not there. There is a process for investigation when dealing with whistleblowing. What happens now is how An Garda Síochána will really be judged. The deputy commissioner has made it very clear in his opening remarks that this is a change process. We must see, and very quickly, that it is real and meaningful. There cannot be incidents coming down the line in 14 or 18 months that give the information that what is happening now is not the truth in there being real attitudinal change and a real change in management. If that is not there it will be impossible for anyone to support it. If the type of ingrained change being discussed does happen, we will come out of this with a better police force.

The notion of going after rank-and-file gardaí through disciplinary proceedings would not only be abhorrent to me, but also completely wrong. To pursue the grassroots of an organisation when the real problem lay up the line would be one of the State's greatest wastes of money. I do not have a problem with just moving on. There are certain people in public life who are almost collecting a trophy wall out of the mess that has been created, mostly by An Garda Síochána's own hand, but it is as though they are collecting one trophy after the next. I do not subscribe to that and think it is crazy. One cannot decapitate everybody. There are many examples in the private sector where people did appalling things while running companies, failed in their obligations to pay what was right and proper to the State and so on. This is a forgiving country. People come back. If the restructuring, rebuilding and new management is there, then that is what we will judge.