Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Garda Commissioner simply must stand down. That is the view both of many in the House and of the community and people outside the House who see what is going on. Time after time in recent years, we have had crisis after crisis and each time the Garda Commissioner has stood up to say either she did not know anything about it or it was not her fault and had nothing to do with her. Deputy Fitzgerald, as Minister, has taken a similar line and it is just not good enough. A cabal in the higher echelons of An Garda Síochána has run the force into the ground and destroyed morale within the force. There are good, decent gardaí out there trying to do their job every day who feel this. They feel the public looking at them and they know they are not believed. Last week, I heard two women talking in a shop while there was something on the radio about the justice committee in some county, I think, that had reports on the number of burglaries that had happened. They threw their eyes up to heaven and said, "We believe that all right." No one believes anything that comes from An Garda Síochána any more when we have 1 million breath tests which have been fabricated.

I was looking the other day at details of corruption outlined by An Garda Síochána under the Garda Síochána (Confidential Reporting of Corruption Or Malpractice) Regulations. There is a whole list, including deliberate falsification of records. Yet it is said the Commissioner can stay in place. It is absolutely outrageous that we are here tabling a motion calling for the Garda Commissioner to stand down when everyone in the community knows it is the only option that can progress the situation. The Garda Commissioner must stand down and be replaced with someone outside of the force.

One of the most significant events to have happened in recent weeks is the publication of the Fennelly report. Fennelly states that no one knew anything about the allegations, yet all the people in the higher echelons of An Garda Síochána come up through the ranks. They were once inspectors, superintendents and chief superintendents and many of them had responsibilities for communications and data collection in all the Garda districts around the country. Did they not know about this? It is just unbelievable that this situation continues. Who ordered the equipment to do all this taping and recording? Who paid for it? Where are the records? They must be there, yet those at the very top tell us they know nothing about it.

It is simply unsustainable for this Commissioner to stay in place and the Tánaiste knows it. At some point or other we will also have to look into other scandals that have happened in An Garda Síochána. As the Tánaiste is aware, I have raised issues in the Dáil previously regarding malpractice in the Garda to no avail. I provided a protected disclosure to the Tánaiste on 11 November last and got no response from her. This situation simply must be tackled very soon.

For instance, I have been told all over the country about the practice in some Garda stations of putting summonses in the bottom drawer. If they are summonses for the wrong person, that is, someone particularly well connected, they are never served. How many summonses were issued in this manner? This happened all over the place down the years and continues to happen to this day; yet it is not being examined. It is happening under the management of the current Garda management and the person at the head of that management is Nóirín O'Sullivan. Nóirín O'Sullivan simply must be made stand down. The Tánaiste is not doing her job as long as she leaves her there. We simply must clean up this mess and the only way to do so is to start at the top, remove the Commissioner and put someone in place from outside the jurisdiction who will have a clean sweep. We need to sort out this situation and it cannot be done by any more reports or inquiries or anything else. The dogs on the street know what the problem is. It is the Tánaiste's job to deal with it.

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