Garda commissioner offered a lifeline as Fianna Fáil back away from no confidence motion
After Ms O’Sullivan failed to answer key questions on how almost 1m drink-driving tests were falsified and instead announced a three-month review into the scandal, Fianna Fáil said it is still unable to support the commissioner.
However, the party’s justice spokesman, Jim O’Callaghan, backed away from supporting a no-confidence motion in the commissioner, instead taking aim at Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald.
Sinn Féin published a motion of no confidence that it plans to put down by mid-April, with Labour due to discuss a similar move at its weekly parliamentary party meeting today.
Mr O’Callaghan questioned whether such a vote would be legal. He said the Cabinet — which would come under intense pressure to remove Ms O’Sullivan if the majority of the Dáil voted for her to go — is ultimately the only group which can remove a commissioner.
Noting that the Fianna Fáil front bench needs to discuss the matter further today and that Ms O’Sullivan has left “crucial questions unanswered”, Mr O’Callaghan instead targeted Ms Fitzgerald, saying she must answer questions on her role in the affair today.
The development came as Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Fine Gael ministers continued to voice support for Ms O’Sullivan, who was defiant yesterday that she will not step down even if the Dáil votes for her to resign.
Speaking at a hastily arranged press conference after an unscheduled two-hour Department of Justice meeting with Ms Fitzgerald, Ms O’Sullivan said she accepted accountability for the crisis went from the “top to the bottom and back up”.
Announcing a three-month review into the breath-test scandal, to be led by newly promoted assistant commissioner Michael O’Sullivan, she said An Garda Síochána needs “strong, visible leadership”.
Asked three times if she would step down if the Dáil voted for her to do so, Ms O’Sullivan said: “I have a journey of work that I have to do. I have to make sure I see out that commitment.”
She refused to say there was mass falsification involved in the almost 1m phantom breath tests that were recorded between 2011 and 2016, and that the three-month review will establish “who did what and how did it happen”.
Ms O’Sullivan said she wants to “assure the public if we identify any individual or group of individuals, they will be addressed” and that “pointing the finger” will extend to those in managerial roles.
Questioned on whether gardaí made up the breath tests and essentially engaged in fraud, she declined to answer, but said they were “serious issues” which the three-month investigation must resolve.
She said: “The integrity of each individual member of An Garda Síochána is on the line.”
The internal investigation is due to be given to the independent Policing Authority and Department of Justice by June, and is likely to give Ms O’Sullivan breathing space to address the latest scandal to hit the force.
While the possibility of the commissioner being forced from office by a no-confidence motion in the Dáil has reduced, the risk of a Cabinet split on the issue remains.
Mr Kenny, Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar, Education Minister Richard Bruton, and Ms Fitzgerald are continuing to publicly back Ms O’Sullivan. However, Independent Alliance junior minister John Halligan last night said the situation “is not acceptable”.
Noting the fact the Independent Alliance will meet privately this morning before releasing its own statement after Cabinet, he said: “We need to bring this to a close one way or the other, for the sake of the gardaí.”
Ms Fitzgerald met with Policing Authority chairwoman Josephine Feehily earlier yesterday to discuss the fallout from the crisis.
The Oireachtas justice committee has also asked Ms O’Sullivan to attend a crunch meeting on the issue this Thursday.
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