Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I repeat something I said last night in discussion during Private Members' business on a Bill to try to address some of the issues that have come up over the years and to address the need for change in the justice system. The Government has indicated it will move on some of the measures and hopefully this will be done fast. The issues have hung around for a number of years since the Garda Síochána Act 2005 was passed. The measures will address the future and we must address some of the cases highlighted to date. When dealing with the outworkings of the Morris tribunal, I remember arguing with Michael McDowell that what occurred in Donegal could have occurred in many other divisional areas. We needed to address policing on the island as a whole, but particularly in the State, in the same fashion as we addressed policing in the Six Counties. My belief, which has been borne out by some of the revelations that have emerged in the Chamber and outside it, is that there was malpractice, skulduggery and criminal intent by a small number of gardaí within a force that has been besmirched because of the actions of a few. This happened throughout the country and we did not have the mechanism to deal with it. If the mechanisms were in place, they were found sadly wanting.

The Garda complaints board was scrapped because it could not deliver on its functions. When it was scrapped, the Garda Inspectorate was set up to ensure the mechanisms and practices in the Garda Síochána met a modern standard. The inspectorate has been in place for a number of years but did not spot some of the bad practices exposed by whistleblowers. GSOC has been hampered by lack of resources and proper funding and because it has to rely on members of the force it is supposed to investigate. The vast majority of gardaí I have met over the years are diligent, hard-working and genuine people who uphold the law, fight crime and prevent crime. Most of them have expressed to me a frustration at not being able to do their jobs properly, whether this arises from equipment, bureaucracy or time that could be better spent doing the job rather than form filling.

There is always a danger in any large organisation. The Garda Síochána is not the only large organisation in the country that has fallen short of its purpose and ideals. When such an organisation feels under attack, and in this case the attack was from within, the organisation closes ranks, buries its head in the sand and denies all around. This might be fine as an initial reaction but, given that this is the police force, the body tasked with upholding the law and setting an example for society as a whole, it is not good enough. Whatever about the initial reaction, as soon as the full scale of what was exposed and the truthfulness of what was highlighted emerged, it should have merited greater investigation and charges being brought against those who were doing wrong. There should have been penalties if the PULSE system was being abused or used for the wrong reasons. There is collegiality among colleagues and people are often fearful of turning on someone who is a colleague. In the case of someone involved in criminality, there is a duty on people in this House and in every organisation. It is a culture that, to date, we have not managed to get across properly in Ireland. Hopefully, this will set an example and set the bar very high for everyone in society so there is no more of the nod and wink. It does not matter at what level the crime occurs. This change might filter down.

It is a pity the institution set up specifically to help members of the Garda Síochána to expose wrongdoing, the confidential recipient, also fell short. One of the scary parts is that an institution set up quite recently could not get to grips with this in any shape or form. GSOC also could not deal with it and what was most worrying was the attitude of the Garda Commissioner when faced with the charges made by Garda Maurice McCabe. He seems to have dismissed the charges or put his head in the sand. That must be ended. There is quite a lot in the report and it is good that the justice committee is dealing with it. I spent a long time on the justice committee or attending its meetings. We dealt with a range of things and no matter was sacred. Hopefully, the Secretary General can shed some light on what happened between him, the Taoiseach and the former Garda Commissioner. The acting Commissioner said there was a change in attitude and that GSOC should have investigators so that gardaí are not investigating themselves. That was a change and there is a layer of other issues that must be addressed by gardaí or by GSOC.

It is not just this group of whistleblowers that has suffered the consequences. In the past, a whistleblower in the Defence Forces exposed a range of abuse and harassment of women in the Defence Forces. Eventually, it lead to the Doyle report, which led to major changes in the Defence Forces and a change in attitude. As far as I know, there has been a change in culture in the Defence Forces. However, in the meantime, the man had lost his job or could not sustain being in the Defence Forces. A garda who attempted to expose wrongdoing in the force had to leave the force early and his health failed. A few others were in similar circumstances and it is right for the State to examine some mechanism to compensate him or to ensure the loss of earnings in the period when he was forced out is recognised by the State.

A thank-you in that form is not always good enough. He is happy that he and Sergeant McCabe have been vindicated and that Sergeant McCabe has access to the PULSE system again and can carry out his duties as a garda. That should have happened years ago, but at least it has now happened. There is an acknowledgment of what happened, but sometimes an extra step needs to be taken. I hope that at the end of all of this those who had the courage to highlight wrongdoing will no longer be penalised and will be able to hold their heads high. I met some of them last night.

There is another aspect to this issue which I have raised with a number of other Ministers for justice and it has some relevance in the context of the Guerin report. Part of the culture within An Garda Síochána of late seems to be that it is okay to leak information to crime journalists. In Dublin and other cities information on ongoing cases and characters of interest has been used by some in the tabloid media to build up these characters. This has been to the detriment of society. Some characters in my area and that of the Minister now think they are invincible because the Sunday World,the Daily Mailor one of the newspapers of this type have built them up as gang bosses or gang lords. Some of the information in the media has come from within An Garda Síochána. Any information supplied in that manner on ongoing cases is a threat to An Garda Síochána because it can undermine investigations and threaten the cases being investigated.

I have not got to the end of the rumours circulated regarding the fact that some new newspapers had a number of gardaí on their payroll or were paying them a stipend to get this salacious information, but this practice must be stopped. If a garda is found to be leaking information, regardless of whether it is valuable, to journalists, it must be stopped. Using the Garda Press Office is the way to provide information. Far too often, erroneous material is published in the newspapers and this damages the families involved, whether victims or relatives of those under investigation. This can cause major problems. The only possible source of much of the information provided is the PULSE system. It is most important for An Garda Síochána that the PULSE system is got right and that the data within it are protected. We must be very sure that as An Garda Síochána gets to grips with the changes that will be made, this system is secure. As citizens, we must know it is secure and that information is used for the purposes for which it was gathered - to prevent and solve crime, rather than to line the pockets of so-called crime journalists.

I take the opportunity to congratulate the whistleblowers. I also encourage others who have information to provide it. I hope the recommendations made in the report will not lead to a flood of information, but perhaps we need such a flood of information to deal with the exposure of the issues involved once and for all. We could then draw a line in the sand and would be able to say An Garda Síochána was as good as was possible and that everything it did was of the highest standard and done to the utmost.

On the issue of resources, even in these stringent times, An Garda Síochána should have the equipment necessary to fulfil its role. It should not take a garda in one station 15 minutes to take fingerprints, while in another it only takes two, all because one station has a computer system, while the other is in the Sherlock Holmes tradition and uses ink, a roller and a piece of glass. It is madness that in this day and age An Garda Síochána is hampered by outdated equipment when more modern equipment would allow gardaí to use their time in a better fashion.

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