Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Today we have a case of here we go again, with Dáil business suspended while the Minister for Justice and Equality comes in to explain himself. I really wonder how long it will take for the penny to drop and for backbenchers in Fine Gael and the Labour Party to join the dots and realise we have a serious problem in this country. That problem is twofold. First, we are not dealing with isolated examples but rather with an institutional problem. Second, that problem patently will not be dealt with while the Minister remains in office.

The Minister has come in here today and twittered away to his friend sitting beside him. He has gone on the attack in an attempt to deflect. We heard that there is no basis to the allegations made by Garda Maurice McCabe, just as we were told there was no basis to allegations regarding surveillance of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. In that case, we had the Minister referring to "so-called vulnerabilities". He tells us he does not have any animosity towards Garda McCabe, but he spent most of his contribution trying to undermine the latter, in much the same way as he hold us he was a great supporter of GSOC while every action he has taken has been either to accuse the commission of not fulfilling its statutory duty or an attempt to undermine it at every turn.

The Minister spent a great deal of time in his opening statement saying it was not true that the original complaints made by Garda McCabe were not investigated. In fact, he assured us, they were all investigated. The Minister is 100% correct in that. However, they were investigated under procedures which were found demonstrably to be inadequate. We had the Garda investigating itself, a toothless GSOC and a confidential recipient role that was not fit for purpose. These procedures were inadequate to deal with the penalty points issue and are likewise inadequate to deal with all of the other allegations. The Minister thinks he can get away from this reality by deflecting, but he cannot do so.

The authors of the Morris tribunal report referred to being staggered by a small but disproportionately influential core of people in the Garda Síochána. We were told at the time that measures were being brought in to deal with this. It has been clear for some time, however, that the measures that were implemented have not dealt with the problems. Those of us who have been raising these points for some time were, until very recently, ridiculed for so doing. We were met with passionate speeches about how crime is being reduced and the work of the many great gardaí in the force.

Of course there are great gardaí out there, but they too need a transparent Garda force. In my opinion, there is a small but disproportionately influential core in the force. I refer to those among whom "loyalty [to the force] is prized above honesty", as Judge Smithwick identified. This attitude is epitomised by the antics of the Garda Commissioner, who called the whistleblowers "disgusting". He referred to them as "so-called whistleblowers" and said he would not allow them to undermine his officers. This mentality views the force as separate from the interests of the public it is supposed to serve. If that link is to be broken down, the political will to make the Garda so do will be required. Unfortunately, the nature of the relationship between the Minister and the Garda Commissioner is making that impossible. It is a key part of the problem. It is genuinely hard to see how we can move on when this fairly gigantic elephant is in the room. This needs to be addressed.

Every one of this Government's responses has been too little, too late. It took the Government 18 months to appoint GSOC to investigate the penalty points issue. Its response to the surveillance of GSOC was to initiate an inquiry into GSOC rather than the alleged source of the surveillance. Now it is setting up an inquiry to see whether we need an inquiry. To be honest, the issues have gone way too far for that. Of course we need a proper commission of inquiry into everything that has gone on over the last while. That is actually the easy bit. The more difficult bit, and the more necessary bit, is that alluded to by Deputy Wallace - the urgent legislative reform that is needed in this regard. When we highlighted what was needed last summer, the Minister basically laughed us out of court, although he has now adopted some of our points. He does not need to bring these issues to the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. GSOC has already told the Minister what it needs, but he has ignored it. The recommendations that GSOC issued on foot of the Kieran Boylan report have not yet been implemented. More important, the idea that the Minister and Commissioner Callinan can remain at the helm is unsustainable at this stage. I do not say that lightly. I am not saying it on the basis of jumping to conclusions. I am saying it on the basis of my knowledge of the facts.

The Minister said that Sergeant Maurice McCabe's allegations of malpractice and serious corruption in the area of Bailieborough, County Cavan were investigated. He pointed out that "not everything is simply black and white" and that is true. What is black and white is that Sergeant Maurice McCabe was demonised, bullied, discredited and moved out of that station. What is black and white is that Sergeant Maurice McCabe was told there was no case to answer in cases in which there are clearly questions to be answered. I am not saying that any garda wanted something like the tragic murder of Sylvia Roche Kelly to happen. Clearly, that is not the case. Clearly, it is good that her murderer is in prison. The point that people are making is that it is an awful pity that he was not in prison before he murdered her. He could have been in prison if gardaí had done their jobs properly. It was decided to shoot the messenger rather than deal with the consequences of these actions or inactions. Luckily for Irish society, this messenger was made of sterner stuff. Sergeant Maurice McCabe did not back down despite the enormous personal consequences that had for him. The difference with the penalty points case was that it was possible to prove what went on there. Even in that case, it was a massive battle over 18 months. Sergeant McCabe went to every arm of the State to get answers and only then did we get them. It showed his credibility and meant that the other allegations were now being listened to, which was hugely important.

I am glad that Fianna Fáil has stood up and woken up to this issue. I am glad that others who have not said a word about this issue since it started are going to speak about it now. I am glad that people are learning about the seriousness of this issue. However, it is clear from the Minister's antics here today that he does not appreciate how serious this issue is. He is taking the exact same approach that he took to the penalty points issue. In that case, we were told there was no systems problem. The Minister told us that just 189 allegations had been made and that half of them were wrong anyway. Now we hear that a load of allegations have been made, but there is probably nothing to them. That is wrong. We can say that because we know what has happened in so many other instances. The Taoiseach received a letter this week from Ian Bailey on foot of his request for others with evidence of malpractice to come forward. As the Minister knows, five Supreme Court judges have said that the behaviour of gardaí in relation to Ian Bailey was wrongful and breathtaking misconduct. The gardaí in question offered a drug user £5,000 and drugs to incriminate Ian Bailey. The garda who was named in the DPP's report as having done that was sent to France to advise the French authorities on the criminality of Ian Bailey.

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