Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I very much appreciate the chance to speak on the O'Higgins report, as it throws an invaluable light on the nature of our policing and judicial systems as well as our inquiries system in this State, which is something we have to take with huge seriousness. We start with the foundation principle as set out by the first Garda Commissioner, Mr. Michael Staines, which many Deputies have reflected on in their contributions, which is that a police force "will succeed not by force of arms or numbers but on their moral authority as servants of the people".

The roots of the word "sergeant" come from "to serve" and the one clear message out of this is that Sergeant Maurice McCabe has lived up to that ideal and aspiration. As a sergeant, he has come out of this report and process with great honour and respect. Yes, Mr. Justice O'Higgins states on occasion that perhaps he talked up some aspects of what happened but, in truth and consistently, he is seen as someone who is seeking the truth and to enhance the moral authority of the Garda and as someone who is willing to serve as a public servant.

My personal sense of dealing with the Garda - my assessment of our police force - is a positive one. I think most people in Ireland have a similar experience and trust their local guard. I grew up as a campaigner organising protests in this city. Routinely, I would go down to the sergeants in Pearse Street and in an informal and flexible way would tell the guards what we were thinking of doing. It was disruptive, difficult and not easy, but they were flexible and accommodating and they built up trust by the way in which they policed the city centre. That was my experience.

I also had an unfortunate experience, having spent a fair bit of time in the District Courts for various reasons watching our criminal justice system in action. Anyone who is close to that system would acknowledge that, unfortunately and, it is sad to say, undermining the moral authority of our system, our guards, fairly routinely in those courts, the lowest courts where the attention and gaze is not focused, do not always tell the truth. They cut corners and act in a way which undermines the moral authority and makes the case worse in the long run.

One only has to go outside the gates of this House. I am sure most Deputies and people involved in this House at various stages in the past five or ten years saw various forms of protest which were policed in different ways. Often the nature of the policing is down to stuff that is not tangible but which makes a world of difference. We see some guards in what is admittedly and undoubtedly a stressful and difficult situation react to that situation in a way that makes it worse and undermines the moral authority by the aggressive nature in how they respond. We see other guards, however, in the exact same circumstances who, simply in the way they stand, hold the line and behave, enhance authority and, to my mind, reduce the difficulties and the public disorder which they are there to police and to try to protect against.

For every failing of the guards, we also see guards going to incredible lengths. Take, for example, the Graham Dwyer case and Garda James O'Donoghue. This is not to be found in a rule book. We cannot easily say exactly what one should and should not do according to a rule book. What drove him to go back to the reservoir in Roundwood? He thought, "The first trawl we did, the water was not quite visible; I am going to get into the mud and spend my time up to my knees sifting through the mud." This was because he thought there was a wild, outside possibility that there might be something else there. He found a Dunnes Stores loyalty card with a name on it and a phone, which were then used as evidence in that murder trial. I think this restored faith, because this was an example of a guard going beyond the call of any duty to show what can happen when policing is done in that sort of way, as did a number of his colleagues in the same case. They dealt with and built up evidence through their dedication. This seems to me to be the same attitude as that of Sergeant Maurice McCabe, which was to be willing to go beyond what anyone would expect. No one would have expected Sergeant McCabe to have shown that same persistence, that is, the same digging into the mud of what was not working in his own county and station. That is what we have seen here in the way that he developed and sought to improve the police service of which he was a part.

Before talking briefly about the nature of what he learned from the policing in this report, it is important to recognise that there is a bigger question and issue about the nature of our investigations in the State itself. Much of this revolves around how we treat and manage evidence. I notice that Mr. Justice O'Higgins states that in his inquiry he sought to follow the path of constitutional and natural justice. It is important we do that. As I understand it, a case is coming before one of our courts where a previous tribunal, the Mahon tribunal, was fatally and fundamentally undermined because the non-sharing of evidence with people who were accused. It has seen that incredibly expensive and drawn-out process completely undermined. The basic rules of how one treats evidence in a way that meets the requirements of constitutional and natural justice were not followed. We are not good in how we do inquiries; we have not found the secret to success yet.

I listened to the passionate and articulate contributions of Deputies Wallace and Daly in this House yesterday. Again, we saw how they were treated. The problems of the former Minister, Mr. Alan Shatter, and his need to resign lay in his using of evidence the guards had found in terms of a misdemeanour in the use of a mobile phone, which was a completely inappropriate use of Garda evidence and which should and inevitably did lead to the consequence that his authority as Minister for Justice and Equality was completely undermined. It said something about the guards that it was possible for that sort of evidence to be used in that way. It undermines the authority of the guards and how evidence is used. Likewise, it can also be said of how Deputy Daly was treated in terms of the false accusation and case against her which was ultimately dismissed.

We have a problem ourselves in this House. I was removed, or away, for the past five years. However, in terms of how the Committee of Public Accounts worked in terms of collecting evidence and managing our inquiry, we have not got it right. We know ourselves that sometimes in the committee room, when someone is presenting, it can turn into a court-like theatre and the instinct can be really to hammer the person and show how brilliant one is as a parliamentarian by digging deep. However, we also have questions to answer in how we manage that process. It is not as if we are beyond reproach in terms of how investigation works.

We now have this report from the commission of inquiry and again we are faced with real questions about how evidence in this case has been presented and leaked and whether it was, as claimed by Mr. Justice O'Higgins, who was seeking it, a non-adversarial and more inquisitorial approach. Was that really the case? What was it the Garda were seemingly clearly doing in trying to undermine Sergeant McCabe by alleging that in the original complaints in Mullingar in August 2008 that he had certain motives?

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Whether we call that malice or questioning integrity, or whatever words we use, they were seemingly trying to undermine the one person who was digging in the mud to find the truth and trying to set higher standards within the Garda Síochána.

The way evidence was managed in this case is important. It is interesting to note one of the first things Mr. Justice O'Higgins stated in the report. It is on page 11. He states: "the compliance with the obligation of making discovery by the gardaí was unsatisfactory" and then goes on to say, "A large volume of documents were not provided in a timely fashion". He further states: "However, the manner in which such cooperation manifested itself was, on occasion, quite inadequate – the commission expected better from An Garda Síochána." There are real questions to answer. Why was that the case in an inquiry all about the way evidence is presented and managed? It is remarkable that the report had to start with that admission.

The inquiry is amazing in the way it brings us back into daily life in our country. A person could be on a bus at 2 a.m. coming back from a disco or outside a disco at 3 a.m. It speaks to the dramatic and sometimes mundane reality of what policing is like. It is difficult. It cannot be easy when a garda arrives at a fight at which someone is being hit and people are drunk do not know what is happening. That is not easy. It is not easy to know the right thing to do. I imagine policing is sometimes a subtle thing. Policing is a tough job. We do not want to end up with a police force that is all about writing everything down and following the rule book to the nth degree if it means those responsible cannot get anything done. Sometimes for a garda, it is a question of a walking out into a lake up to his knees in mud and having to sift through it, not because it is part of the procedure he must follow but because he is following an instinct. I imagine when a garda arrives late at night to a difficult situation and there are all manner of personal things at play, the way he dispels the violence, calms things down and sorts it out is remarkable.

We must give our gardaí the flexibility to use their judgment. However, we also need them to be really top-notch. The report details a litany of occasions on which evidence was not followed up or not collected and statements were not pursued. There was an underlying truth in what Garda McCabe was saying - in other words, our police force needs to be better. This is not the first time we have heard it. We found that out from the Morris and Smithwick tribunals. There have been consistent messages around that issue. The report is about the nature of policing throughout the State every day. The Department and An Garda Síochána should forensically examine this report to see how to encourage the culture that makes it better.

I have a slight concern. Part of the problem resides in the Department of Justice and Equality. The Department also has a responsibility. One could pick many instances in which the Department was not fast, open or transparent in processing information. I have in mind the letter to the former Minister, Mr. Shatter, that never reached him. Faster action would have dispelled one of the controversies of recent years. Anyway, there seems to be a cultural difficulty. Ultimately, the Department has to take responsibility for this. A series of tribunals have questioned the nature of the Garda, its investigation system, how it deals with abuse and how we have ended up in this fix, which is deeply damaging to the reputation of An Garda Síochána as well as our sense of ourselves and the State we live in.

The Minister should look within her own Department and not only to the Garda Commissioner. There are wider considerations, to which Deputy Shortall adverted before me. Another thing that comes out of the day-to-day assessment is a gaze on the wider judicial system. This is an indication of how important the report is. It opens up questions about our public service, the Department, the Government and our policing and court systems. We must ensure we use this report in a way in which, seemingly, we have not used previous reports in order to change the basic structures of our policing and judicial systems. If we do not, this will be a missed opportunity.

I look forward to hearing the outcome of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission inquiry into what happened in respect of what can only be described as the deliberate undermining of Sergeant McCabe. It is of the utmost importance that the GSOC inquiry is treated with real urgency and candour. It is one of the key elements that remain to be resolved, although it is not the only one. Fundamental reform of our system is required. It is not that our police or gardaí are bad - we know that. However, the culture is not serving the Garda or our people, and that needs to change.

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