Dáil debates

Friday, 17 June 2005

Morris Tribunal: Statements.

 

1:00 pm

Photo of Pat RabbittePat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The Minister and I are agreed on one thing. A Garda authority would radically alter the structures of policing and accountability for it in the State. It is for those reasons I propose it and for the same reasons the Minister so vehemently opposes it. It is as plain as a pikestaff that both Morris reports contend there is a chronic, systemic malaise within the Garda Síochána. Events have also shown a chronic, systemic incapacity on the part of those in charge even to diagnose let alone treat that illness.

When it comes to allocating responsibility for this state of affairs, the Government is right in one respect. Successive Administrations have regarded Garda competence, integrity and independence as shibboleths. Successive Ministers have been content to repeat well-worn references to dedication and sacrifice as if those statements, which deserve to be made and repeated because they are true, told the whole story. Successive Administrations have shied away from peering into what Lord Denning infamously described as the "appalling vista". They have refused even to contemplate in public the possibility that all was not well within the force. When illegal activities, malpractice or even corruption were exposed, reference was made repeatedly to the "rotten apple" while the warning in the phrase coined by Benjamin Franklin was ignored. Just one rotten apple will spoil its companion and, eventually, the whole barrel. The difference between the Minister and me is that he still clings to his shibboleths.

The Minister, as Ministers always do, endorses the concept of ministerial accountability to Dáil Éireann. It is beyond me how he can do that with a straight face after what I witnessed from the Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, on screen just a few minutes ago. That Minister told the House he faced, in effect, a mutiny from the Phoenix Park and threw in the towel.

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