Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The speech is also an attempt to rewrite recent history. One would imagine from listening to it that the Minister is the most enthusiastic reformer of An Garda Síochána who ever walked the earth and that he is the best Minister since Ministers were invented, according to the Taoiseach and all those who defend him. He stated repeatedly, “if I ignored the allegations”. He tried his level best to ignore the allegations. Were it not for his own actions, which prompted a motion of no confidence in this House last year there would have been none of these reports. That he had private information, given to him by the former Commissioner, which he used against Deputy Wallace, landed him in a situation where he had to give in to all those reports. That is the only reason we are here again today and why the reports were commissioned. His ability to have that tittle-tattle puts into doubt his remark that he had no knowledge of the very serious issues of which he pleads ignorance in his Department. He was in control of basic information, or does he ask senior Garda officers about the police files of his political colleagues? That is why we cannot trust him to manage his job. That is why his wish to move on, as he always wishes, cannot be respected because while we move on with him in charge the kind of confidence he expects and hopes for in An Garda Síochána will not exist.

I welcome the announcement of a review. What will be the public input into the review? Has the Minister envisaged what kind of public consultation system there will be? Will the Garda Inspectorate seek views from people around the country? Does the Minister intend to proceed with the appointment process for a new Commissioner immediately or await the outcome of the review? As he has laid out the review he hopes for a changed force. I hope with that blueprint in place he will proceed with the appointment of a Commissioner to manage that changed force. I do not know whether he has had time to reflect on that process and what it will involve but I welcome the fact that it will be an open process.

The issues raised this morning are central to this debate because the Minister’s style is in question. His and the Taoiseach’s acknowledgement this morning that the Attorney General went to the Taoiseach first on Sunday with the allegations in her file is very serious. It demonstrates a completely dysfunctional relationship between the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Attorney General, the Minister responsible for security, who is also the Minister for Defence, and the chief law officer in the country. It speaks volumes that the Attorney General had no confidence in the Minister’s ability to manage information and went to the Taoiseach and, most bizarrely, refused to speak to him on the phone but wanted to speak to him face to face and that the Taoiseach did not bring the Minister into that loop for 24 hours. It shows that the Minister is not fit to serve. He does not have the confidence of the Attorney General. He may have the confidence of the Taoiseach but the confidence of many of his colleagues as expressed in recent days is weak, to say the best of it.

If we are to move on from here the Garda review process needs to consider the kind of personnel and training involved in senior management of the Garda. I welcome the fact that the Minister has drawn attention to the Garda record in recent years, to its successes in policing and protecting communities here and abroad but those on the street and on the beat have been let down by management who cannot see the importance of their role, or understand the importance of public confidence in their role. That management style needs to change. While the Government continues to cling to the Minister the change unfortunately rests on his shoulders. That is why the review must involve the public and international expertise on how a modern policing force can continue to drive forward in our community with the kind of threats we face. Will the Minister deal with the question of international involvement?

We are at a very serious impasse in the history of An Garda Síochána.

What we saw yesterday was an attempt to politicise the force by sacking the Commissioner. He did not retire. The Secretary General of the Department of Justice and Equality does not call on a Monday evening to offer a retirement card. The fact that the information was revealed through RTE because the Taoiseach did not announce it in the House makes me wonder what else happened on Monday that we have yet to be informed about. The review that the Minister announced is incredibly important. These reports are incredibly important. The Guerin report and other reports will lead to change in the management structure and the rebuilding of respect and morale in the force. Meanwhile, however, the confidential recipient and the Commissioner have gone, and God knows who else will go before the report is published in September. I suspect it is the Minister's intention to remain in office. I regret to say that while he is still there, there can be no change.

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