Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister, however, who will be responsible for overseeing this process, is the very Minister who has been at the heart of all of the recent scandals. I note that the independent policing authority was not included in the programme for Government. Hence the importance some parties attribute to that decision. There is an opportunity for a step change, a new beginning, in policing, policing structures and the administration of justice in this State, an opportunity to get politicians out of policing matters. It will be a lost opportunity if this process is not taken on.

To be successful, a new beginning for policing in this State needs a new Minister for Justice and Equality. The Taoiseach has said he will not ask you to resign. That is a mistake. Perhaps the Minister could on this occasion take the right decision and, like his friend Martin Callinan, resign.

There is widespread public support for An Garda Síochána. The service has a unique, deep-rooted connection to communities, which the Government is actively dismantling through its policy of closing 140 Garda stations, cutting the number of Garda vehicles and reducing the number of gardaí by 10%. There is, however, a culture of bad administration, a lack of accountable and oversight mechanisms and transparency. This culture, which smacks of cronyism, elitism and the corrosive, corruptive relationship with the elites, which the Government pledged to root out, is now evident in other institutions of the State. It is a culture among senior management that betrays the sacrifice and integrity of rank and file gardaí. There are over 13,000 members of An Garda Síochána across the State, men and women, the overwhelming majority of whom have done no wrong. They have been profoundly failed by a cabal of senior management and the Minister. The message should go out clearly today that the vast majority of members of the Garda Síochána continue to have the unwavering support of the Irish people but the Minister does not, and neither did the outgoing Commissioner.

This culture was evident in the failure to investigate properly the Fr. Molloy case or the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. It stems, to a large degree, from the fact that for many years political leaders allowed the legal, judicial and policing system in this State become an adjunct of British counter-insurgency in the North of Ireland. This resulted in special non-jury courts-----

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