McDowell defends his plans for Garda inspectorate

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday denied his plans for a new Garda inspectorate would undermine the role of the Garda Ombudsman Commission.

Various groups, including members of the Opposition and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), have criticised the inspectorate proposal. Rank-and-file gardaí are also uneasy. The Garda Representative Association believes the inspectorate will ultimately answer to the justice minister and therefore be open to political interference.

The ICCL’s Tanya Ward said the inspectorate plan was “flawed and nonsensical,” saying it risked undermining the ombudsman commission.

“What we need is an independent ombudsman commission, with a public reputation for independence and impartiality, to deliver justice and remedy citizens’ grievances,” she said.

“Instead, the minister’s new proposal will confuse the two bodies in the public mind and allow him to exert even more political control over the gardaí, because this new body will be accountable to him.”

Solicitor Michael Farrell, a member of the Human Rights Commission, reiterated the ICCL’s warning that the body could undermine the ombudsman commission.

But Mr McDowell, speaking at a graduation ceremony at the garda training college in Templemore, Co Tipperary, said the inspectorate would work in tandem with the ombudsman commission and report directly to him on organisational and management matters within the force.

He stressed that the inspectorate would be carrying out “a different task” to that undertaken by the ombudsman commission, which will investigate complaints made against gardaí.

“The inspectors will be doing thematic reviews, looking at public-order enforcement in a particular area and seeing if it’s up to internationally bench- marked policing standards,” he said. “The ombudsman is doing a totally different job.”

The provision for the new watchdog will be included in the new Garda Bill, which will come before the Dáil in the autumn. As a result, Mr McDowell said, the inspectorate could be in place by the end of the year.

It would be comparable to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Britain, which in the North works side by side with Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan.