Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

It is fair to say that the Minister's speech was very defensive and narrow in its scope, bearing in mind the issues of national interest at stake. The country is reeling from the revelations made by Mr. Justice Frederick Morris. He and his team have done a signal service to the State and we are all grateful for that. His tribunal has unearthed a murky side to the activities of some in the Garda Síochána — a side that many if not most of us did not believe could have existed. We were made aware of gross incompetence, corruption, personal vendettas, the destruction of lives and livelihoods and somewhere amongst all that, the great disrespect shown to the late Richie Barron and the search for the real truth surrounding his untimely and undignified death.

We have been lucky in this country to have a police force in which we felt we could take pride and in which we felt we could have full confidence. However, the unedifying sight of senior gardaí, a law unto themselves, scrambling around County Donegal like it was their own private fiefdom and subsequently scrambling around our system of justice in order to avoid their punishment has gone a long way to eroding that pride and confidence. It gives me no pleasure as a public representative who shared that pride and confidence to read some of the report's conclusions and recommendations into the record of the House. I do so on the basis of the obvious need to ensure they are acted upon. This does not make easy reading.

On the role of Garda headquarters, Mr. Justice Morris states that "there was a lack of proper management at senior level, corruption at middle level, and a lack of review throughout the force." He also states that it has been all too easy for the highest structure of an Garda Síochána to be hoodwinked and misled. He goes on to state, astoundingly, that "the Minister's Department is now far too isolated from Garda Headquarters." It is obvious that the events in Donegal were not just a little local difficulty. The report clearly states that greater accountability to Garda headquarters is needed, and that "the system for reporting major incidents through Garda headquarters and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform is obviously unsatisfactory."

It is incredible to think that such a breakdown in communication has been allowed to occur. Worse still is the culture of unaccountability that has evolved, which is buttressed by a regime of obfuscation and deceit that was writ large and obvious to everyone in the behaviour of certain gardaí in their attitude to the tribunal. It is necessary to record that Mr. Justice Morris found that "it had been lied to repeatedly by former and serving Garda officers" and that:

It is obvious that where a situation reaches a point where wrongdoing has become hardened into a habit in certain sections of An Garda Síochána, that people are not only unlikely to own up to it, they are positively likely to lie about it.

In the face of such stinging criticism, a catalogue of lies, the assertion of communications breakdown and a condemnation of a lack of accountability, significant action is clearly necessary. The Garda Bill continues to be the vehicle through which to take it. We must first tackle the wall of silence behind which the unsavoury activities took place. As Donegal highlighted, the wall of silence was as impregnable as the Berlin Wall. Like the Berlin Wall, it must be torn down. The findings of Mr. Justice Morris scream out for a mechanism whereby wrongdoing is pinpointed, tackled and eliminated. One of the ways to ensure that happens is to provide protection to honest and upstanding members of the Garda Síochána who alert those with the power to act such as the proposed Garda ombudsman or ombudsman commission. I shall return to the debate surrounding the nature of the commission later and focus first on the empowerment and protection of whistleblowers, which must be given priority.

As drafted, the Garda Bill goes out of its way to make it difficult for gardaí to complain of corruption and other misdemeanours in their ranks. Under section 75, a member of the Garda Síochána is excluded from making a complaint to the ombudsman commission or proposed ombudsman. There is no reason this should be the case. Circumstances may well arise in which gardaí have crucial information about bad practices and abuses they have witnessed. While it might be argued that a garda with such evidence can go to his or her superior officer, Donegal demonstrated that in some instances the superior officer in question might be party to the misbehaviour reported. The perception among those gardaí to whom I have spoken about the provision is that they are excluded from the process. I raised the point with the Minister on Committee Stage on 1 June and received the following interesting reply:

Under section 94(4), it is possible for the ombudsman commission to institute its own investigation in the case of a situation of which it has become aware. A member of the Garda Síochána who is the only witness to a serious matter and who believes, for whatever reason, that internal disciplinary procedures or reporting to a superior will be insufficient to deal with it, or having reported to a superior has received an inadequate response, can bring this to the attention of the ombudsman commission. In those circumstances, the commission could investigate the matter if it deemed it appropriate to do so.

Where is the transparency in that? Mr. Justice Morris set to work because the lines of accountability were blurred and the activities of certain members of the Garda Síochána were not impeccable. I cannot understand why the Minister proposes a back-door approach which, on the one hand, specifically prevents honest gardaí from reporting wrongdoing, while, on the other hand, offers them a wink-and-nod option to make the commission aware.

The Minister for Finance informed Deputy Rabbitte only yesterday that section 4 of the Protections for Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act and section 50 of the Competition Act contain clauses to provide for the protection of whistleblowers. If specific whistleblower protection is appropriate in the cases of child abuse and competition, why is it inappropriate for the Garda? Is it not a worthy case? Has the Minister forgotten it was a whistleblower in AIB which allowed its customers to get back what was rightly theirs? At worst, section 75 of the Bill will dissuade a wavering member of the Garda, unsure of how to act or answer the Morris question, "To whom should I turn?", raised time and again, from reporting the wrongdoing of others. I urge the Minister strongly to reconsider.

While he is at it, he must also think again about the absurd proposal that the Bill should pass into law within 14 days. Given all that has happened and that we are where we are due to a lack of scrutiny, transparency and accountability, the two-week timeframe is a recipe for disaster. While I want to see the Garda Bill enacted and avoid unnecessary delay, the House, the public and the force must be able to have full confidence that the legislation in its final shape reflects fully the findings and recommendations of the Morris tribunal. We cannot ignore the Morris recommendation issued two weeks ago for the Oireachtas to review the provisions of the Garda Bill to satisfy the legitimate disquiet which has arisen from the tribunal's study of the documents in this case. The Minister said he made special arrangements to allow today's exchange of views before Report Stage, but statements do not satisfy the Morris recommendation. At issue is the broad picture of the tribunal.

My party leader, Deputy Kenny, has already called on the Government to suspend Report Stage to invite an independent and respected panel, including someone with international expertise, to review the Bill during the obvious period of the recess over the next three months. The panel would report to the House in the autumn its assessment of whether the Bill addresses fully all recommendations made by Mr. Justice Morris and ensures the structures proposed to handle complaints against gardaí accord with best international practice. Everyone knows it takes two weeks to read a typical report yet this is the entire period allowed by the Minister to process the Bill. The Fine Gael proposal is reasonable. Its adoption would not unduly delay the legislation, but would have the effect of providing for the Bill to be Morris proofed.

As the findings set out in the report of Mr. Justice Morris show, the Bill is lacking in other areas. The management structure of the Garda must be scrutinised. Neither the current nor proposed structures provide for outside civilian recruitment to Garda managerial ranks. The only way to take a leadership role in the management of the Garda will continue to be to sign up at Templemore and work one's way up the ranks. The Minister will be aware that a former press officer from his Department, a lady from my constituency, was recruited by the Police Service of Northern Ireland and is now an officer of the organisation.

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