Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

In tabling the motion, the Labour Party has given us all an opportunity to discuss this important topic. Mr. Justice Morris has done us a service in his report. I will address it under four points. The first point is that the gardaí deserve our support and our commendation. They place themselves at personal risk to ensure that law and order and quality of life for every citizen are maintained. Many of them have paid the ultimate price in that regard. As a body, the Garda Síochána has a proud record, which is mentioned in Mr. Justice Morris's report. It has been unfortunately tarnished by this incident.

My second point relates to the reference to corruption in the report. Corruption in the Garda Síochána or any police force is a serious matter. The tribunal has come to the conclusion that the Garda Síochána is losing its character as a disciplined force. This is something that is disturbing to the Houses of the Oireachtas and to the wider public. It is detrimental to morale and impinges on the proud record of the Garda Síochána.

My third point concerns the negligence that is highlighted in this report. Unfortunately, there is a catalogue of evidence therein. The communications failure following the accident involving Mr. Barron and the indolence in responding to the call from the public is inexcusable. Also inexcusable is the failure to preserve the scene and the absence of a garda from duty because he was drinking. The contents of this report mirror, to some extent, the failures of the Garda Síochána in pursuing the Dublin and Monaghan bombings investigation which took place over 20 years ago and was examined by the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights. It concerns me that 20 years after that investigative failure a similar situation occurred in the mid-1990s.

I wish to address the serious management failures within the Garda Síochána. I have raised this issue in this House in the past and I have seen that where there are good people in management positions, the rank and file conform to best practice and perform to an acceptably high standard. However, where management is deficient, the opposite occurs. There is a need to examine this issue because the problem is highlighted in areas such as contemporaneous reporting not taking place and a failure in the preparation of files, which Mr. Justice Morris points out is fundamental to any effective and fair judicial system. The judge suggests that files should be routinely inspected by management, there should be an ongoing management review of procedures, systems should be clearly set out and random audits should be undertaken. He further suggests that a manual on handling informants should be produced. All of these suggestions are basic and elementary to any organisation trying to operate to minimum standards but, unfortunately, it appears that this was not the case in Donegal.

It is worth examining the lack of leadership and appropriate decision making, as outlined in the first Morris report, which states:

A common theme throughout the tribunal hearings has been the manner in which senior members of An Garda Síochána have tried to avoid accepting responsibility for their own actions or inactions by referring to the duties of others and/or Code regulations. Members have shown the minimum initiative and maximum dependence upon the limitation of their duty by a strict interpretation of either the directions received and/or possible ambiguity in the parameters of their role.

There are serious management deficiencies throughout the public service at all levels. However, that is not to say that there are not many excellent practitioners also. The system, for whatever reason, does not have a mechanism to identify and award the good performers and root out those who are not performing. That needs to be done, particularly in light of the Morris reports. Mr. Justice Morris asserts that what happened in Donegal was not just a statistical blip. His view is that the gardaí in Donegal were recruited from different parts of the country and that, as a consequence, one could reasonably expect to find similar failures elsewhere.

The real question is whether it could ever happen again. According to Mr. Justice Morris, given the lack of proper management at senior level, corruption at middle level and the absence of reviews throughout the force, it is possible that in similar circumstances, comparable corruption could arise. This inquiry is so serious because it highlights the neglect of the fundamental duty of police management to ask questions and get answers and Mr. Justice Morris finds this shocking.

A number of related issues arise, one of which is the turnover of personnel. I have seen the effects of that in my own home town. Indeed, the current Garda Commissioner spent three or four months in New Ross as superintendent and we had a revolving door for a period of time. That weakens authority and is detrimental to stability within the force.

I agree with many of the initiatives taken by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. He responded promptly, as did the Garda Commissioner, in undertaking an initial review of the force. However, because of the seriousness of the failures mentioned, I urge the Minister to engage a policeman of international stature to examine all systems within the Garda Síochána and make recommendations. We should not simply rely on an internal review. There should also be an external review and periodic inspections to ensure that recommendations are being actively and effectively implemented.

Senator Cummins recently referred to the police in Boston. The police commissioner there made a comment recently to the effect that good cops do not necessarily make good managers. She also suggested there is a need to examine the age profile for promotion, so that good police officers with management skills could be identified early and given the scope to apply their abilities in senior positions within the force.

The country should be divided into regions, with an assistant commissioner in charge of each region, as currently applies in Dublin. That would result in a more interactive police response. Each region should be benchmarked and compared on performance and the benchmarking should use international and national best practice as its basis.