Seanad debates

Thursday, 30 October 2008

12:00 pm

Photo of Feargal QuinnFeargal Quinn (Independent)

Please interrupt me if I speak for six minutes.

I welcome the Minister of State. I am glad to hear him refer, particularly, to the Morris tribunal and state that the complaints do a grave disservice to the tradition of the Garda Síochána and dishonour their primary objective to provide professional, fair and effective policing to our community. Since the State was established and the decision made in the 1920s to have an unarmed Garda force, the Garda Síochána has been held in very high regard, and hopefully that will continue. What happened in Donegal in the 1990s caused great concern. I hope it will not hamper or damage the ability of the Garda to do, as Senator Walsh referred to, the very effective job it has done in the past.

A management term refers to "flat management", which involves passing as much responsibility as possible on to people without having a structure that has many different controls before someone can make a decision. In solving this problem, I hope we do not end up losing the innovation and enthusiasm of people in the force. There is a danger of that with the structures that have been put in place.

The Minister of State discussed the whistleblowers mechanism. After years of demand from the public for whistleblowers means within the Garda Síochána, the new confidential system for reporting Garda malpratice was announced in April 2007, over 18 months ago. Although this facility must be welcomed, why was the system not made active until just four months ago?

I understand the whistleblowers mechanism has already received three contacts from gardaí concerned about the conduct of fellow gardaí. As there have already been three cases in the four months of operation, surely this is considered a large number? I am interested in the Minister of State's view. The Government already gave up the need for legislation in 2006 that would have provided for extended legal protection for whistleblowers in favour of a so-called sectoral approach. It is not unusual for whistleblowers to be discriminated against by current or future employers or even sacked from the organisation.

Perhaps we need legislative provision to facilitate whistleblowers. The director of the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, Mr. Paul Appleby, stated in May this year that he "would like to see a whistleblowing provision provided in the forthcoming companies consolidation and reform Bill". We need a different approach to whistleblowing and perhaps it is regarded as a non-Irish thing to do. The shortcomings of the Garda, which were highlighted by the Morris report, show we need to afford whistleblowers more protection and commend them on their civic contribution rather than ostracise them as informers, which has happened in the past.

There are numerous examples of very brave Irish whistleblowers. For example, Fr. Gerald McGinnity was removed as senior dean at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, in 1984 when he tried to draw the attention of its bishop trustees to seminarians' concerns about the behaviour of the then vice president. Susan O'Keeffe was charged with contempt of court for refusing to name her sources to the beef tribunal following her 1991 "World in Action" television programme which led to the establishment of that tribunal. Sheenagh McMahon experienced devastating personal repercussions when she revealed in 1999 that her husband, Detective Garda Noel McMahon, had planted home made explosives later claimed as significant IRA explosive finds. That led to the establishment of the Morris tribunal.

I have mentioned these because we must act on the need for whistleblowers. I am concerned about the solutions we are finding to put in place controls to ensure this does not happen again in the Garda Síochána. Senator Walsh spoke about the Garda inspectorate, the joint policing committees and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. The danger I see is that individual members of the Garda will be so afraid of taking a step out of line, they will be controlled by the duties placed on them. I know gardaí in the past who have taken innovative individual steps and have been able to say a problem should be solved in one way rather than another. I hate to think that young gardaí joining up, in particular, may be inhibited from taking the right steps.

With whatever solutions come from the Morris tribunal, I urge the Minister to maintain the effective Garda force of which we have been so proud over the years. We should not hamper or damage it or inhibit the individual ability of gardaí to act in the best manner of protecting citizens and giving them the sort of police force we have been used to in the past 80 years and which should continue.

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