Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ensuring a clear separation of police, military and intelligence powers in any properly functioning and democratic society is absolutely necessary to protect the public interest and the civil liberties of citizens in this State and to allow those institutions of the State to fulfil their roles. The targeting of GSOC, an organisation tasked with holding the Garda to account, for unwarranted and unlawful surveillance would clearly be a matter of grave concern for most democracies. The implications are enormous. However, that is not case with this Government which, along with sections of the media and senior Garda personnel, has made a concerted effort to divert attention from what is clearly an assault that goes to the heart of our supposed democracy.

The targeting of GSOC and the Government's response have exposed GSOC's lack of powers and capacity to exercise proper oversight of the Garda. There is also no clear separation of powers between the Defence Forces, the Garda special branch and other State institutions over which the Minister, Deputy Shatter, presides. The dangers inherent in this have been exposed in the past couple of weeks by the Minister, Deputy Shatter, whose failure to initiate a proper independent investigation into the bugging of GSOC raises a number of serious questions, not the least of which is why he and the Government are so reluctant to get to the truth of what happened.

The importance of having a fully accountable police service cannot be overstated. The Twenty-six Counties can learn much from what has been achieved north of the Border. The PSNI civic policing service in the Six Counties, which replaced the RUC security force, is now more accountable than the Garda by quite a distance. There is no comparison between the old RUC and the Garda, but I believe my point is made in terms of the advantage of a modern, professional and accountable civic policing service. It is not a perfect model, but it shows the real need for reform in the structures to hold the Garda to account. The policing boards, set up under the Police Act 2000, are a prime example of a limited form of democratic checks and balances that are clearly lacking in this State.

We believe there should be an independent policing authority in this State. We want more powers of accountability here that currently apply in the North, which came about as part of the new beginning to policing under the Patten reforms and subsequent legislation introduced at Westminster. Sinn Féin wishes to have much of what is in place in terms of the Northern Ireland Policing Board replicated here in respect of joint policing committees. The joint policing committees in this State must be strengthened. We must ensure that the Garda is completely independent from the State. We can no longer have a situation where Ministers appoint senior gardaí, and they in turn watch their backs politically. That is clearly unacceptable, but it is also the perception of what exists between the Minister, Deputy Shatter, and the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan. This perception has only been exacerbated over the past ten days as part of the GSOC controversy. The days of a quid pro quo arrangement, where the Minister of the day circles the wagons against any criticism of senior gardaí while they in return circle the wagons against any criticism of the Minister, must end immediately.

Sinn Féin and the citizens of this State want nothing short of a fully accountable Garda Síochána and a Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission with full powers of oversight and full independence from the Executive in this State. That would be in the best interests of the men and women who serve us in the Garda Síochána and of the Irish people. If there was real democratic accountability on the part of the Garda, we would not have this situation today. A full independent inquiry would have been the obvious solution to the serious questions being asked about this matter from the start. Instead we have a Minister for Justice and Equality, a Taoiseach and a Garda Commissioner denying there is any serious issue to answer and giving deflective and useless answers instead of allowing the books to be thrown open. So much for all the talk of radical reform and a new way of doing things under their watch.

If there was a real desire for the Garda to be accountable, there would not be a situation in which the Garda Commissioner cannot be investigated by the body established to investigate the Garda. This point was well made by the former Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Nuala O'Loan, on RTE this week. The idea that the person at the top of the Garda is above investigation is repugnant to the notion of accountability and transparency. Instead we have the offer of a paper review designed by the Minister for Justice and Equality which will report to the same Minister who is at the centre of the controversy that must be cleared up. This approach smells of cover-up to the public, rather than clear up. Nothing short of an independent inquiry which is established on a statutory footing and which has the power to compel both witnesses and documentation, including the Minister, is good enough.

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