Watchdog: Deep unease over failings within force

The Policing Authority has expressed serious concern at “systemic performance and management failures” within An Garda Síochána and “deep unease” at the organisation and management culture of the force.

After meeting with Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan in relation to the O’Higgins report, the Policing Authority issued a detailed statement in which it:

• Demanded an urgent response by gardaí to the findings and recommendations of O’Higgins;
• Expressed serious concern at the reoccurrence of performance failures identified by previous inquiries, “including in particular the Morris Tribunal and various Garda Inspectorate Reports”;
• Expressed particular concern for the impact on the victims of crime who were entitled to expect a professional and competent service from gardaí “and who didn’t get it”;
• Expressed deep unease at the organisation and management culture, including attitudes to speaking out as evident in the report.

The authority said a more detailed examination of specific issues arising from O’Higgins needed to take place in the interests of transparency. it is therefore to hold two meetings in public on June 13 and 30.

“The agendas for these meetings are likely to focus on service to victims, protected disclosure, and culture, and may also examine the O’Higgins recommendations in the context of other reviews such as those of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate,” the authority said.

In the meantime, it told Ms O’Sullivan it wants gardaí to engage an external provider to carry out a cultural audit within the force “as a baseline from which the impact of the commissioner’s modernisation and renewal plan can be assessed”.

The authority also wants the Garda Síochána Protected Disclosure policy to be published “at the earliest possible date”.

“The Garda Síochána Public Attitude Survey which has been referenced in many meetings should be published immediately,” it said. “The Policing Authority also expects to see a formal Garda Síochána response to the findings and recommendations made by Judge O’Higgins. This response must then be reflected in the Garda Síochána Strategy Statement 2016-2018 which will come to the Authority for approval in the coming weeks, and likewise in the Policing Plan for 2017.”

After meeting the commissioner, Policing Authority chairwoman Josephine Feehily said the recurring deficiencies in policing performance evidenced in the O’Higgins report were deeply troubling, and she criticised the manner in which victims were failed.

“We welcome the Garda Commissioner’s apology to victims, her immediate acceptance of the Commission findings and her acknowledgement that there are many lessons to be learned,” said Ms Feehily. “However, in exercising its oversight role, the authority will seek evidence of a tangible response to those lessons including at the two forthcoming public meetings in June. Today was just a first step in this oversight process and there is clearly a lot of work to be done.”

Yesterday, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors called on garda management and the Justice Minister to immediately review the whistleblowing charter.

Meanwhile, a community activist has said that Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s promised taskforce for Dublin’s north inner city cannot be just “rhetoric” and must provide “real and long-term” action.

Fergus McCabe said the murderous onslaught in the north inner city represented “a threat to the stability of the State”.

A youth, drugs, and community activist for decades, Mr McCabe said the Government should “bring in the Army” to the area to send out a signal to both the community and the killers.

Mr McCabe, chairman of Young People at Risk and a member of previous State task forces and high-level strategy groups, said the “bane” of such bodies was that their reports “gather dust” and their recommendations never, or only partially, implemented.

“The issue is not what can be done,” he said. “The issue is what can be implemented.”

He said that if Mr Kenny, who announced the taskforce in the Dáil on Wednesday, was serious, the taskforce had to tackle all the socio-economic issues, as well as open drug dealing, intimidation and, most urgently, the murders.