Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will start by paying tribute to Maurice McCabe and his family. It is of vital importance to wish them well. He and his family have had to wait 12 years to get to this stage. It is only because Maurice McCabe was resilient enough and was able to withstand the process that we are at this stage. That is the really sad and worrying thing about the system we have at present. Unfortunately, it is a system we have always had. People from republican backgrounds have known what the system is like and how it has worked. They know how members of the Garda have worked with impunity and can do whatever they want and that this has always been the way. It is only when we see the issue widening out into the wider community that we can see the extent of it, its importance and the impact it can have on people. People who live with and grow up with this kind of corruption and this kind of treatment become immune to it and expect nothing else. Ordinary citizens deserve an awful lot better, however.

We have seen what has actually gone on here. I myself have heard a former Minister for Justice and Equality say in this House, in respect of the investigations that went on in Donegal about which the Morris tribunal went on for years, that the only thing at that time was to make sure that it only affected Donegal and stayed in Donegal. It was the modus operandi of the Department of Justice and Equality and of the Garda to make sure that it was a Donegal issue and to suggest that things were different up there when, in fact, the problem is right across the country. The only way to deal with the issue is to recognise that and deal with it. I do not think it is going to happen. Unfortunately I think that we will be here in a couple of years' time talking about somebody else. That is really sad because there is an opportunity to make this happen.

It is also sad for the ordinary members - the people who are joining the Garda now with, perhaps, the hope of making a change or of serving their community. Someone at the top cannot be corrupt unless everybody surrounding him or her is also corrupt because such a person cannot get to the top without cover. Such people will not surround themselves with straight people because straight people will look and ask what they are doing and what is going on. It therefore permeates the whole way through the system. The only way we can have faith in the Garda in the future is to make sure that everybody at the rank of superintendent and above resigns or is retired and paid off. That is the only way we can ensure that this will never happen again. Even at that, we can only ensure that it will never happen again if the proper scrutiny is there, the proper way of looking at the issue is there, and the proper people are in place.

We have seen this report come out and we have seen Maurice McCabe being vindicated but, unfortunately, I have no faith that this will not happen again or that we will make sure that it will not. It is going to happen again. That is the sad thing about it. I have been sitting here for six years. I may not be the person dealing with it next time. It may not be Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan or the Minister either, but we will be back here dealing with the same issues. Unfortunately, that is the way it will be.

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