ANALYSIS: Time for real action on Garda corruption
IT’S as if Donegal never happened, or that the Morris Tribunal ever reported. It’s as if the first instinct in dealing with Garda corruption or wrongdoing remains to sweep it under the carpet, where it used to be brushed away in the old days.
Yesterday, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) published some details of its investigation into the relationship between drug dealer Kieran Boylan and individuals in the force. Boylan was arrested in Oct 2005 in possession of €1.7m worth of heroin and cocaine. He was out on bail at the time pending trial on an earlier major drugs bust, but the charges against him for the 2005 bust were dropped three years later. He claimed to have been working as a Garda informant at the time.
The case resonates in places with the circumstances that led to the establishment of the Morris Tribunal, which investigated corruption in the force in Donegal. Included is an alleged informant, who continued to engage in criminal activity while working with the gardaí; there is a whiff of careerism behind the recruitment of the informant; the reliability of information supplied by the informant was suspect; the informant may have been involved in securing convictions that could not be deemed unsafe; one arm of the force didn’t know what the other was doing in relation to the individual; serious criminal charges were dropped in highly unusual circumstances; and there was a failure of an internal investigation to get to the truth.
All of these elements were present in Donegal, and in the Boylan case.
However, the shocking reality is that Donegal and Morris was supposed to have changed everything. In 2004, Morris made a series of recommendations in relation to the handling of informers, including that they had to be registered, and not allowed to engage in criminal activity. Now, nine years later, the GSOC is reporting that much remains as it was in the Wild West days of Donegal.
“The Ombudsman Commission does not believe that all of the deficiencies in the original system (of handling informants) were fully remedied by the introduction of a new and current system,” GSOC reported.
Failing to learn the lessons from the past is one thing, but the other outcome of GSOC’s investigation is equally worrying. Back in 1999, Donegal was first investigated through assistant commissioner Kevin Carthy, in a report that failed to get to the root of the issues.
That experience contributed to the establishment of an external body, the GSOC, to investigate complaints against the gardaí. Yesterday, the GSOC laid out how the shutters came down once it began its investigation.
Contrary to the law, as set out in the 2005 Garda Síochána Act, the force failed to fully comply with its obligations to co-operate with the ombudsman. The investigation took over four years to complete, a period that the GSOC puts down to prevarication. “The Ombudsman Commission is disappointed that the reason for this long delay is due mainly to difficulties experienced by the investigation team in obtaining evidence from the Garda Síochána.”
THE force is obliged to supply information within 30 days, but it failed to do so in three out of every four requests. Seven requests for information weren’t fulfilled for almost a year, two of which took 18 months. One request received no response at all.
In addition, members of the force resorted to a tactic first identified in the Morris Tribunal as “the trigger syndrome”. This involves responding only to the specifics of a question asked, and offering no other information that might flesh out a narrative for the inquiry.
All of this is in sharp contrast to the impression given by Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan last November, that relations between the force and the ombudsman were hunky dory.
“I have co-operated fully and facilitated fully all of the inquiries that the GSOC has requested,” he said when asked about the Boylan case. He added that the delay in the four-year investigation was not attributable to any attempt by the gardaí to frustrate the GSOC’s work. That position is in direct conflict with yesterday’s report from the GSOC.
“The ombudsman commission considers this level of co-operation by the Garda Síochána highly unsatisfactory. It had a significant detrimental impact on the investigation in terms of timeliness and completeness.”
Neither can the conflict be attributed to a few bad apples. The GSOC is not pursuing any action against members of the force for breaches of discipline. According to a spokesman, one of the main reasons for declining to do so is that much of what went on, both in dealing with Boylan and in failing to co-operate with the inquiry, would have been known in the upper echelons of the force. To single out a few scapegoats when a culture is at issue would be both unfair and largely redundant.
The ball is now in Alan Shatter’s court. The GSOC has forwarded him a “special report”, outlining “grave concerns” about Garda practices, and making recommendations. Whether Shatter will apply himself to this issue with the same enthusiasm he has shown in reforming the law business, or lecturing to garda members about cuts, remains to be seen. In keeping with some of the practices uncovered by GSOC, he may well revert to the old way of doing things and look away from unsavoury realities.
As for Martin Callinan, this is the last thing he needs on his desk right now. Morale is under attack, resources under pressure, and now this, old failings coming back to haunt the force, despite all the modernising that was to have taken place in the wake of Morris. Yesterday, the commissioner issued a statement in response to GSOC that was long on spin and short on any specifics.
It didn’t bode well for any hope that he might take on board the trenchant criticisms, and sort out a culture that has lingered past its sell-by date.
It’s 10 years since dealer was caught with €700k of drugs, writes Conor Ryan
1997: Boylan is sentenced to serve more than seven years for the possession of cannabis resin in England. He emerged owing money to the criminals who organised the deals.
2001: Boylan is convicted in England of stealing a car and driving dangerously. He gets nine months in jail.
DEC 2003: Boylan is caught with €204,000 of heroin and €500,000 of cocaine at Dublin Port having been told to deliver them to Louth.
JUL 2004: A couple in Louth said they were threatened after reporting drug-related activities involving Boylan to the gardaí.
AUG 2004: Boylan, who held an international haulier’s licence, is complained to the Department of Transport on the grounds that he had a drugs conviction in Britain. The department orders a good repute check from the gardaí.
DEC 2004: Gardaí come back and say that Boylan’s only convictions were road traffic offences. This was false.
JAN 2005: Transport officials visit Boylan’s yard in Ardee and warn him he could be prosecuted if he does not remedy a series of infringements in relation to his business.
OCT 2005: Garda National Drugs Unit arrest Boylan at his base in Ardee with €1.7m of cocaine and heroin.
FEB 2006: Boylan is jailed for five years for his 2003 dealing offence, but gardaí tell the court he was not a major player and would have had little knowledge of the overall deal.
JUN 2006: Transport officials order another good repute check from gardaí. There is no record on file of the response. The charges against him in relation to his 2005 offence are withdrawn, amid suspicions he would reveal his position as an informant.
MAR 2007: Gardaí finally inform the Department of Transport about Boylan’s previous drug conviction.
APR 2007: The charges that were previously dropped are re-entered after public disquiet.
MAY 2008: Boylan’s international road haulage licence expires. Two months later he applies for a new one and immediately officials request a third good repute check from gardaí.
JUN 2008: Gardaí reply to the department and detail Boylan’s eight drug-related convictions in Ireland and claim the Probation Act had been applied in all cases. This was wrong. Further clarification is received from gardaí. Transport officials are told of two convictions in Feb 2006, in which he received a five-year sentence, with a portion suspended.
JUL 2008: The DPP tells Dublin Circuit Criminal Court it will not be pursuing the charges against Boylan.
SEP 2008: Boylan is granted an international road haulage licence. The department said his crimes, including drug smuggling and shipping, did not directly relate to his haulage business.
OCT 2008: The Garda Ombudsman Commission begins to investigate the alleged link between him and gardaí.
MAR 2009: Boylan changes the name on his transport licence to Ciarán Baoighealláinn, and submits a new business name, Alan International. Labour’s Pat Rabbitte uses Dáil privilege to lay out suggestions that Boylan was being protected by gardaí.
APR 2009: Briefing document presented to Transport Minister Noel Dempsey outlines the trail of events and claims the Constitution made it impossible to refuse Boylan a licence. A full inquiry is launched.
AUG 2009: A Transport Department report is critical of the false information gardaí provided when references were sought on Boylan’s convictions.
SEP 2009: Mr Dempsey sidesteps a pitfall by announcing he would strip all hauliers with serious convictions of their permits.
NOV 2012: It emerges that the Garda Ombudsman Commission is close to completing its report into the links between gardaí and Boylan.
