Seanad call to put Garda bill on hold

The new Garda Síochána Bill should be put on ice and debated further in the light of the Morris Tribunal’s findings, the Seanad heard today.

The draft legislation had previously passed all stages in the Seanad and was due to be made law before the summer recess later this month.

But Fine Gael’s Seanad leader Brian Hayes today called for the Bill to be shelved for six months to await the DPP’s decision on Judge Frederick Morris’s second interim report.

Senator Hayes said: “There is widespread public concern over the issue and it should be reflected in the Oireachtas.”

He called on Justice Minister Michael McDowell to return the Bill before senators given the recommendations contained in the Morris Report and the significant public concern on the issues.

The Morris report found that the investigation into the death of cattle-dealer Richie Barron in Co Donegal in 1996 was “prejudiced, tendentious and utterly negligent in the highest degree“.

Two senior gardaí resigned in the aftermath and five officers were transferred from Co Donegal to Dublin postings.

Mr Hayes added: “[There are] significant levels of public outrage and concern at the decision by the Garda Commissioner to transfer the five gardaí cited in the Morris Report from Donegal to Dublin.

“I think this is an outrageous decision that gardaí cited in the report would be simply shunted from one part of the country to another part.

“Given that the report is now before the DPP, I would have thought that the appropriate line of action would have been to suspend the officers concerned pending a decision by the DPP to take action if any action is preferred.”

The Opposition Seanad leader also called for additional time for the Labour Party’s Private Members Motion debate on the issue tomorrow.

Also calling for a “temporary stop” on the Bill, Labour senator Kathleen O’Meara added: “The name of the gardaí has been severely sullied by the Morris Report.”

But Leader of the House, Mary O’Rourke said it was the intention to bring the Garda Síochána Bill back to the Seanad during the last week of session to deal with amendments made in the Dáil.

She said she would look into allowing more time for a debate on the Morris Report tomorrow evening.

Minister McDowell said yesterday that he understood the five transferred gardaí would have not contact with the public.

“Nobody should infer from the fact that people are transferred to Dublin that they are in some way being immunised from either disciplinary procedures under the Garda Síochána code or potential criminal prosecution,” he added.

Two senior garda officers criticised in the second Morris report – Det Supt John McGinley and Supt Joe Shelley – are due to retire on full pensions on July 31.