State urged to clamp down on gardai

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell was yesterday urged to immediately introduce planned legislation for a Garda Inspectorate, while a garda body said the move would infringe on its rights.

The Garda Representative Association warned the inspectorate could not prejudice individual garda constitutional rights. Mr McDowell made it clear the new legislation - which will be published next Easter but may not become law until 2004 - will oblige gardaí to co-operate with the new supervisory authority.

“The new inspectorate, when it is established, will have clear powers to exact co-operation, and members of An Garda Síochána will have clear and enforceable duties to co-operate,” Mr McDowell said.

The GRA said they approve of the new inspectorate in principle, but a spokesman warned that members' rights, such as on the issue of potential self-incrimination, cannot be compromised by a duty to co-operate. These comments followed sharp criticism by Garda Complaints Board chairman, Gordon Holmes, on Monday, that rank and file gardaí had not co-operated with the Board’s inquiries into the handling of a street demonstration last May. During the Reclaim the Streets protest, 24 arrests were made and a number of activists hospitalised.

Mr McDowell criticised the gardaí's "a la carte" attitude to co-operation with that investigation. He said if he received a copy of the report he would seek full compliance from gardaí.

But the Green Party said they would seek a Dáil motion urging the Justice Minister to review Garda training and ensure Garda are properly disciplined.

The Greens’ justice spokesperson Ciaran Cuffe said the deafening silence from the gardaí resembled the Mafia omerta or code of silence. “The failure of many gardaí to respond to the Garda Complaints Board is a damning indictment of the force,” Mr Cuffe said.

Labour Party justice spokesman, Joe Costello, called for the Minister to immediately implement emergency legislation establishing an independent Garda Inspectorate. He also said revelations at the Morris Tribunal that the Garda Complaints Board has failed to act on past complaints further undermined public faith in the gardaí to carry out their work properly.

The GRA also said claims that gardaí did not co-operate with the investigation into their actions during the so-called Reclaim the Streets rally last May could prejudice proceedings against seven gardaí. Gordon Holmes yesterday said only 20 officers out of 150 responded to letters asking them to give their accounts of events at the rally in Dublin last May.