John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will follow on from what Deputy John Curran has said. There are internal audits and it is a wonder that those two groups of internal audit committees did not uncover at an earlier stage the 14,700 convictions that were wrong or the million breath tests that were simply not carried out. How much knowledge do members of the force have in this regard? One cannot carry out a million breath tests and fake them. One cannot process 14,700 cases and not know what is in them. It is not a systems failure but a failure of the police to do their job properly and a failure of management to do theirs correctly as well. There was no transparency or accountability. It appears that management overlooked what was going on within the force, without any attempt to correct it. The most senior manager in the force has served for 36 years. One would imagine that these senior managers would have known about the Garda college, that a million tests were falsified and that 14,700 convictions were questionable, yet nothing was done. We are now asking the same management team to participate in correcting all of the wrongs within the force. I do not think it works that way. If it was in any other business, they would be asked at least to stand aside and that is what is required here.

Regarding the Garda whistleblowers, they are being treated as badly today as they were when they first came forward. That is an awful reflection on the management, who talk about change and the need for transparency and accountability. That is a fact. Further audits were conducted, the results of which we have not yet seen. When we see them, they will add to the existing disarray within the force. There is a need for individuals to take responsibility and stand aside, and for the Government to take action immediately to restore confidence in An Garda Síochána. We must protect the many thousands of men and women who go out in an honest way to do their job on a daily basis on behalf of citizens.

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