No political interference in running of the force, says country’s top garda

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan claims there is no political interference in the way the force is run and says he does not believe there is a need for an independent police authority to oversee it.

He was responding to claims made by the Garda Representative Association (GRA) yesterday that the force needs an independent police authority, like that in Britain, which will not be influenced by political masters.

“I have to say that since my appointment the minister [Alan Shatter] has never crossed that Rubicon and tried to interfere with what I do,” he said.

However, the country’s most senior garda said he did support a GRA demand for a commission to look at the force’s pay.

“I think that’s a give. We’ve had in the past the Conroy Commission, we’ve had the Ryan report etc. All of those things have provided a certain outcome.

“I don’t know what that outcome might be if the Government were so minded to introduce it. But I would certainly be in favour, if the Government were minded to do that.”

Mr Callinan said he was conscious of concerns raised by the GRA over station closures but that he was “confident” there would “be no diminution of the service” provided to those communities.

GRA president John Parker had earlier urged Mr Callinan to “tell the stark truth” to the Government that the force was hampered in the fight against crime by lack of resources and personnel.

He said morale among frontline gardaí was “dangling over the abyss” and that Mr Shatter was suffering from “ostrich syndrome” by burying his head in the sand.

The GRA president, who represents 11,300 frontline gardaí, said Mr Shatter’s performance merited “an F grade, F for failure”. Mr Parker said the Government should be ashamed of the pain it intends to inflict on Garda families by threatening more pay cuts when they already cannot make ends meet and pay their bills.

Meanwhile, the commissioner said he had got clarification from the GRA that its earlier assertion that some crimes were not investigated was not true.

“In cases where people are reporting crime, they can rest assured that they are being recorded and investigated.”

He said the matter of what category crimes are recorded under was an issue for the individual garda or the processing centre in Castlebar, which takes reports from gardaí in the field.

There was no walkout by GRA members during the commissioner’s speech, as was the case at last month’s Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors conference in Sligo. However, it was noticeable there were a number of vacant seats in the auditorium which had earlier been occupied just before he got up to speak.