Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

I wish to state three things. The Garda Commissioner must resign, the Garda Síochána Bill should be withdrawn and Mr. Justice Morris must be commended on his trojan work. Commissioner Noel Conroy must resign. The reputation of the force has been tarnished and it happened on his watch. Five years ago, he was deputy commissioner but also acting Garda Commissioner and bears significant responsibility for what occurred. The culture of complacency and cover-up must stop. The code of omerta or silence must be broken and there is a role for both the Commissioner and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to address this.

Commissioner Conroy must resign for four reasons. By the year 2000, although the dogs on the street knew that Frank McBrearty was innocent, Mr. Conroy kept him under suspicion. In a report to the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in August 2000, he stated "the facts and suspicions established in the initial investigation in relation to the death of Richie Barron and detailed in the initial investigation report are largely accurate and have not been rebutted by the current investigation". That response was not good enough. Mr. Conroy continued to target the McBreartys. In his report to the Secretary General in August 2000, he also stated that:

Frank McBrearty Sn. is a forceful individual who likes to have his own way ... He is a manipulative person who has tried to manipulate the initial investigation with Billy Flynn and it is also believed that he tried to manipulate the conduct and direction of the present investigation by other means.

It was not good enough to use those words, knowing what he did at that time.

However, more crucially and importantly, he took insufficient action against the rogue officers. His solution to incompetence and collusion within the ranks was simply to transfer the relevant officers. That was not good enough and he must resign to allow the force to continue to have our respect. Mr. Conroy stated that it was uppermost in his mind to ensure that the unique interaction that exists between the members of the Garda Síochána and the community was maintained and enhanced. However, his solution was to transfer the gardaí to either Dublin or the traffic division. It was not good enough simply to transfer gardaí sideways when he knew that there had been incompetence.

Later, in July 2002, in an update to the report submitted to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, he ended the report by stating that:

A number of matters remain unresolved and these remain under active investigation. However, it is anticipated that all outstanding inquiries will be completed in the near future.

Commissioner Conroy did not do enough when he knew what he knew and he must resign to restore respect in the force.

The Garda Síochána Bill must be withdrawn. We need a Bill which makes radical changes in the recruitment, training, conduct and discipline of the force. I am not convinced the Bill the Minister has presented does that and he must withdraw it. I repeat for the nth time that we need a single ombudsman whose staff should not be drawn from the ranks of the gardaí. The ombudsman must be given the power of inspection, without notice, of any Garda station. We already give that power to the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee and it must be given to the ombudsman because that person must be given sufficient powers to investigate the force. I am very concerned that if we simply staff the office of the ombudsman with rank and file gardaí and if we do not give that person the power to walk into any Garda station, we will undermine his or her confidence.

Mr. Justice Morris must be thanked for his work to date. We all owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for the strength and courage of what he has put down in writing. The Minister is fond of criticising the Fourth Estate but in this instance, I thank journalists in The Sunday Business Post and in other media outlets who have brought facts into the public domain long before they were available from the Government or the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

Cracks are appearing in one of the most sacred institutions of the State and it is insufficient for the Minister to consider applying wallpaper to them. He must radically reform the Garda Síochána and we must have the resignation of the Garda Commissioner if we are to restore confidence and faith in the force.

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