Dáil debates

Friday, 17 June 2005

Morris Tribunal: Statements.

 

11:00 am

Photo of Joe CostelloJoe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

All the families in the public Gallery today have suffered at the hands of Deputy McDowell in the last two Governments. He tendered a general apology recently through the media, but did not apologise directly to the families who have now been vindicated and who have been innocent all along. He did not send a letter or apologise in any personal manner. Is he man enough now to stand up in the House before the end of the proceedings and make an apology to all those who are in the public Gallery and to follow that up with individual letters of apology to each and everyone of them?

I will now refer to the tribunal's findings and recommendations. On page 41 Mr. Justice Morris says:

The Tribunal was fed lie after lie. The spirit wearies at the lies, obfuscation, concealments and conspiracies to destroy the truth.

Despite the obstruction by certain gardaí, which Morris found to be despicable, the tribunal determined that the investigation into the death of Mr. Richie Barron was "prejudiced, tendentious and utterly negligent" and that there was a "cover-up". The Garda were "consumed" with the belief that Mr. Frank McBrearty and Mr. Mark McConnell were the culprits in an investigation where no murder had actually occurred.

Hoax telephone calls by Garda John O'Dowd and his informant were made to the home of Michael and Charlotte Peoples, seeking to blackmail Mr. Peoples to extort money. Even more bizarrely, some of the calls were made from the garda's home and a "prejudiced investigation team" made Mr. Peoples a suspect in the murder investigation as well. In Donegal, truth is stranger than fiction.

The second tribunal report dovetails into the first, which had equally bizarre findings. In that report the Garda, together with its pet informer, were found to have traversed the country and even ventured into Northern Ireland planting home-made bombs, contacting the Garda authorities and the RUC as to whereabouts of these devices and then taking credit for good detective work in finding them. At one time, indeed, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was moved to congratulate the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform for the valuable work of the Donegal Garda in thwarting IRA bombers. If he only knew what was going on.

The tribunal has identified the perpetrators on the ground in Donegal. Superintendents Shelley and McGinley have now taken early retirement after being asked to respond to the tribunal's findings. Now, despite the finding of "gross negligence" by the tribunal, both have sought through the Garda Commissioner, and been granted, legal representation at the next module. This means the State, having already paid their full legal costs in the previous module, will pay their full legal costs in the forthcoming "silver bullet" module. This is strange indeed.

Moreover, five gardaí, heavily criticised by the tribunal for breach of duty, are now being transferred to Dublin by the Garda Commissioner, without explanation or justification. This again is a perverse response to the tribunal's findings. What is so conspicuous by its absence in all of this is the lack of independent machinery to deal with gardaí who have been found to be in breach of their duties. Morris, in both reports, points strongly to the failure by the authorities to put such machinery in place. In his first report, Mr. Justice Morris severely criticised the Minister's proposals for the ombudsman commission in the Garda Síochána Bill 2004 as being too cumbersome and convoluted and not likely to be effective or adequate.

In the present report, a year later, once again he deplores the absence of an independent complaints structure and in this context requests that the Garda Síochána Bill be reviewed and revisited on this subject. Senator Maurice Hayes, whom the Minister has appointed to oversee the rollout and implementation of the Garda Síochána Bill, has severely criticised the powers of the ombudsman commission and the structure of the body as proposed. A commission of three people without a chairman or a leader and that also lacks decision making procedures, which restricts independent access to Garda stations and has some gardaí conducting investigations into Garda wrongdoing, will only have a fraction of the resources available to the one-person Ombudsman in Northern Ireland. Cocooned in a massive confusing and convoluted 50 sections of the Garda Síochána Bill, it is little more than the old Garda complaints body, with a coat of paint. It will not work and it will not have credibility.

Morris has also recommended that there should be a specific obligation on members of the Garda Síochána to account for actions taken in the course of duty. The Minister has agreed to this recommendation but it is the only one of the tribunal's recommendations that he is willing to take on board before the Garda Síochána Bill is voted on, finally, next week. This is not good enough. The Morris tribunal findings and recommendations are profound. They relate to the culture, operations and management of the Garda. Morris said that what happened in Donegal could, in certain circumstances, be replicated anywhere in the country and that it was not a case, simply, of a few bad apples. The Garda Síochána needs a root and branch overhaul.

This report should now be referred to the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, which is considering the Garda Síochána Bill. It should be treated by that committee in the same way as the two reports by Mr. Justice Barron into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in the 1970s. The committee should hold oral hearings and invite written submissions. It should be in a position to invite in all the people whom Morris was unable to interview because of the restrictions to the tribunal's terms of reference. Chief of these should be the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, his predecessor, Deputy O'Donoghue, who is beside him in the House today, the current Garda Commissioner and his predecessor and the Director of Public Prosecutions. The DPP was referred to by the Minister today and we need to know a good deal more about what happened there. Other relevant witnesses who were not called by the Morris tribunal should be included also. Deputy Commissioner Fitzgerald, whom the Minister has told the House conducted a major review of the findings of the first Morris report and its implications for the Garda, would be a valuable witness to come before the committee as well, so that it can hear what is being proposed.

The Garda Síochána Bill should be put on hold for six months to enable the committee to fully digest the impact and import of the two reports of the Morris tribunal, to receive submissions, to hold the hearings and to make recommendations.

The €14 million already spent on the Morris tribunal cannot be written off with a four-hour period for statements in a vacuum in the House on a day on which Oireachtas Report is not broadcast and the Dáil never sits. We must learn lessons and apply them.

As Mr. Justice Morris stated, gardaí are the main losers in the entire business and their good name and reputation has been tarnished to a large degree. Any attempt to cover up and paint over the cracks is counter-productive. We must grasp the nettle and produce a Garda Bill that will contain proper, world-class standards and regulations that will ensure the Garda Síochána moves into the 21st century with the same sense of service to the citizens as it had when it was established in the early 20th century.

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