Garda revamp body to meet after member quits over ‘lack of support’

The body set up to plot the direction of policing will meet this week, amid claims that the Government is unsupportive of its work.

One of the most high profile members of the Commission on the Future of Policing confirmed at the weekend he had resigned in protest at the way the commission was being treated.

Conor Brady said he believed there was “little or no interest in or support for the work of the commission among the political establishment”.

While Mr Brady cannot attend this week’s scheduled monthly meeting, the concerns that led to his resignation are shared by other members of the commission and are set to be aired during the two days of behind- closed-doors proceedings.

Members are understood to be anxious that no budget for the commission was agreed or provided in advance of its establishment and are going into this week’s meeting still unsure what resources are available to them.

That is despite the body being announced last March, approved by Cabinet in April, and the membership and terms of reference being finalised in May, with then- justice minister Frances Fitzgerald declaring that they would be undertaking “a hugely important task that is of relevance to every citizen of the State”.

They are supported by a small secretariat and have recently advertised for a researcher to assist them on a one-year contract, but there are concerns that the September 2018 deadline for production of a final report is becoming unrealistic given the very broad range of issues they are expected to address.

Against this backdrop, there are also concerns at the Government’s wisdom in appointing as chair of the commission Kathleen O’Toole, who is the serving chief of police in Seattle, with limited availability to the members, although in an interview in today’s Irish Examiner she says she hopes to spend more time here.

The 10 remaining members working under her chairmanship are mostly professionals and academics with full-time careers in their chosen fields. Apart from attending monthly meetings, they are working independently and in groups to research specific areas covering the force’s role, structures, leadership, management, ethos, culture, and oversight arrangements.

It is estimated that by next September they will have given 70-80 days each to the commission, yet one of Mr Brady’s complaints was that their role was barely referenced in the latest round of debate over Garda failings which resulted in the resignation of commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.

Mr Brady, a former editor of the Irish Times, is also a former member of GSOC, the body that investigates complaints against gardaí, and has researched and written extensively on the history and structures of the force.

Now a columnist with the Sunday Times, he said he also wished to be free to contribute publicly to debates. Currently, the commission members can only speak as one and have not commented on events, a situation that has frustrated some of the membership.

The Department of Justice said yesterday a budget of €1.5m had been agreed for the commission. The Patten Commission in the North, to which it is often likened, cost multiples of that figure when it devised a plan to transform the RUC into the PSNI.