Eight years since first details of system to handle informants
The covert human intelligence source (CHIS) system was recommended by a working group set up by the commissioner after the first Morris report in 2004.
The main implementation group was chaired by then deputy commissioner for strategy, Peter Fitzgerald; while the informant management group was chaired by then deputy commissioner for operations, Fachtna Murphy.
The informant group recommended:
nAn assistant commissioner for crime and security, to have overall responsibility for CHIS;
nA code of practice to govern the handler/CHIS relationship;
nA “rigid system of registration”, which will be “compulsory” for each member of the force;
nRegistration subject to detailed assessment;
nA minimum of two handlers per informant;
nFailure to comply with CHIS procedures to lead to “prompt managerial intervention and disciplinary action”;
nA national source management unit within the crime and security unit, “adequately resourced and appropriately structured”, to run CHIS.
Afterwards, Mr Conroy said the force was committed to standards of conduct in the management and use of the system: “Such a facility needs to be safeguarded and it is inevitable that it will be subject to scrutiny in the courts and can only be maintained by an insistence on the very highest standards of professional integrity on the part of all members of An Garda Síochána.”
At the time, he said the code of practice would become organisational policy from Apr 3, 2006.
He said the authority to recruit, handle, and manage these informants would only be given by the assistant commissioner of crime and security.
Mr Conroy said the system would be subject to “both internal audit and independent external audit, on an annual basis”.
In 2008, Mr Fitzgerald said CHIS was now “embedded throughout the organisation” and training had been provided for selected members.
He said a national central source unit had been set up and that the code of practice had been supplied to all garda personnel.
In Dec 2010, then justice minister Dermot Ahern appointed retired High Court judge TC Smyth as external auditor or “independent oversight authority” of the CHIS.
Judge Smyth, in a two-page report to Justice Minister Alan Shatter dated October last year, said he had visited all nine Garda divisions and carr-ied out spot checks on files relating to informants.
He met with seven divisional controllers and two deputies, spoke with informant handlers in four divisions, and met senior management at national level responsible for CHIS.
He said while a complete exhaustive investigation was beyond his remit, “the questions I raised in all offices were answered to my satisfaction”.
He concluded: “I am satisfied that there has been substantial compliance with the Code of Practice of An Garda Síochána of the management and use of CHIS.”
