Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

A motion I introduced in this House more than four years ago, on 10 April 2001, contained three main elements. First, it proposed the establishment of a Garda authority to set priorities for fighting crime at national level, to make the key decisions about policing more open and accountable, to be responsible for senior appointments within the force and to receive and consider reports from the Garda Commissioner on operational decisions. Second, the motion recommended the establishment of county policing liaison committees which would be charged with agreeing county or city policing plans, arranging regular meetings between the committees and local gardaí and monitoring progress and addressing the concerns of local communities.

The third mainstay of the set of proposals I issued on behalf of the Labour Party more than four years ago was the abolition of the Garda Síochána Complaints Board, the role and functioning of which is widely agreed to be unsatisfactory. I proposed the replacement of the board with a Garda ombudsman who would be responsible for investigating complaints against the Garda. Such an officer would be given his or her own staff and would be responsible for putting in place a new and independent system for ensuring Garda accountability.

The Labour Party did its work four years ago. The then Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government, with Mr. Michael McDowell SC as Attorney General, responded in a predictably dismissive manner. The then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, responded to the motion I tabled by saying:

I accept that the current arrangements for dealing with complaints against members of the Garda Síochána are not fully satisfactory and need to be reformed. In that regard, I have also made it clear that I intend to bring forward appropriate proposals to the Government to amend the Garda Síochána (Complaints) Act 1986.

The Labour Party proposed more than four years ago the establishment of a Nuala O'Loan-type Garda ombudsman. Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats responded by proposing to amend the discredited Garda Síochána (Complaints) Act. The then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, hardly addressed my other proposals in his long diatribe. He preferred to trot out a self-satisfied dismissal of reality, as the suffering of individuals, families and communities in County Donegal continued. The current Minister's arrogant tone last night is an eerie echo of the speech of the former Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, four years ago.

Let us turn to the second issue. Exactly when did the former Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, receive the report of Assistant Commissioner Carty which we now know contained details of the scale and true nature of wrongdoing in Donegal? I believed he received the report in July 2000. Last Friday, the Minister, Deputy McDowell, informed this House that in fact neither he as Attorney General, or Deputy O'Donoghue when Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, received the report until early in 2002, some 18 months later.

Deputy McDowell said to the Dáil last Friday that:

the Carty report was not delivered ... either to me or to the then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, at a time when its full contents would have been definitely of interest to us and would have enabled us to make earlier judgments on some of the issues involved.

The Minister, Deputy McDowell, told us last Friday that if only he had the facts earlier, he would have acted earlier. This view was restated this morning by the Taoiseach during Leader's Questions when he said:

A partial version of the Carty report was eventually furnished in November 2001, the same month in which Shane Murphy, Senior Counsel, was appointed to review the matter. The complete Carty report, as was stated last week, including appendices, was not furnished to the Minister or the Attorney General until the very end of January or early February 2002.

Accordingly, the Minister, Deputy McDowell, along with the former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, and the Taoiseach all tell us that they did not have a partial version of the Carty report, which contained the essence of the truth about wrongdoings in Donegal, until November 2001, and the full version until 2002. That is what they told this House. It is on the record. The problem with this version of events is that it flatly contradicts what the then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, told the House in 2001.

I tabled a parliamentary question for answer on 7 February 2001:

To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps that have been taken since he received the report of a senior Garda official [namely, Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty] in July 2000 into allegations of corruption and malpractice involving members of the Garda Síochána in County Donegal; if he will bring the report to the Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights; if he will establish a sworn inquiry into the allegations; the steps he will take to re-establish public confidence in the Garda in the area having regard to the serious public concern at the allegations; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

At no time in the Minister's answer — I am talking of February 2001, months before the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform say they received the report — did he say that he had not received the report, or convey in any way that he did not have it. I do not have time to read the supplementaries into the record of the House, but any reading of his reply would indicate that he had the report at that stage. For absolute certainty I draw the attention of the Ceann Comhairle and that of the House to a parliamentary question tabled by former Deputy Alan Shatter and answered by the then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, on 23 May 2001. I quote from the Official Report of Dáil Debates, vol. 536, col. 1414 of 23 May 2001:

Mr. O'Donoghue: As I have indicated on a number of occasions, I am anxious to get to the bottom of what happened in Donegal . . . The investigation by Assistant Commissioner Carty was completed and presented to me and, in turn, to the D[irector of] P[ublic] P[rosecutions].

See this speech in context