Commissioner faces renewed pressure after holiday
Nóirín O’Sullivan is expected to react to serious concerns regarding reports that she applied for the top job in Europol, the EU police agency, at a time when she had repeatedly underlined her determination to drive Garda reform.
She is also under pressure to respond to reports detailing the findings of the internal Garda investigation into the breath test scandal, where recorded figures were almost double the number actually carried out.
This report found that the phantom tests were the result of a combination of poor supervision, concocted figures, data entry errors, and IT glitches.
Details of the Europol job application appeared in the media last month, while details on the finding of the breath-test review emerged over the weekend.
There are suspicions within Garda HQ that the sources of the leaks are from within the Government.
Senior sources said Ms O’Sullivan will have to respond, but there is no indication as of yet as to when that will happen.
Her first scheduled public engagement is the passing out ceremony at the Garda College in Templemore on September 22. That event is usually also attended by the justice minister.
She will be under pressure to comment before then.
The commissioner has her next public meeting with the Policing Authority on September 28. This is set to be another testing appearance for the commissioner, who is likely to be questioned on both controversies.
The internal Garda review — which was conducted by assistant commissioner Michael O’Sullivan — has been sent to Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan and to the Policing Authority.
The authority has contracted an outside firm to conduct its own audit.
Given her repeated statements of her commitment of driving through her reform and modernisation programme, authority members are likely to be concerned at the job application.
Sources have expressed confusion as to the circumstances of the Europol job, including the unlikelihood that she would have applied for the job without knowing she had the explicit backing of the Government and the prospect of getting the job.
“You don’t apply for this job unless you had a cast iron guarantee the Government was lobbying for you and that there was a good chance of you getting it,” said one source.
Ms O’Sullivan is also due to present the authority with reports on addressing concerns with Garda homicide figures and the slow progress on civilianisation.
The commissioner is due to appear before the Disclosure Tribunal next month.
She is scheduled for the Oireachtas Justice Committee on October 4 and is expected to appear before the Public Accounts Committee again sometime after that.
