Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am alarmed by the pattern to which Deputy Wallace alluded. An unhealthy pattern is developing in this country. This morning, in words that are uncharacteristic for him, the Leader of the Opposition said that the system of justice in this country is rotten to the core. There is something sinister in the pattern that has developed in recent weeks. I am not referring solely to the "Prime Time" programme on which private information about Deputy Wallace, which was not particularly damaging, was released. I am also referring to the fact that a confidential recipient was forced to resign today. In the penalty points saga, the GSOC saga and the whistleblowers saga there is a pattern of things being covered up, hastened or not released. The instinct of the Government is all wrong in respect of these matters. Instead of taking an independent view of GSOC and the Garda, or anything else in the area of justice, its immediate instinct is to rally to the force, right or wrong.

That is the wrong instinct. It would be far better if the Minister and the Government immediately took on board these considerable difficulties in the justice system and said they would look independently and objectively at these and root out wrong where it is there. That would increase confidence in the Garda.

What is happening now is the Government, which regards itself as, and unfortunately is, constitutionally and legally joined at the hip to the forces of law and order, immediately says that the forces of law and order come before the human rights and democratic rights of individuals. That is a political instinct. It is a wrong instinct and it is one which they should address quickly.

I was alarmed, as I would have thought were many Members of this House, by the arrest of Deputy Clare Daly. That is explicable only in one way, that is, that the forces of law and order do not necessarily like the political activities of some Members of this House. That is a real problem and it is one that has not been properly addressed.

I suggest that the fundamental problem is that the joining at the hip of the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Garda Commissioner and it should be severed. We must take political appointments to the Garda, to the Judiciary and of others-----

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