Professor Dermot Walsh: Garda reform plan is to detriment of oversight

Key proposals in the Policing Commission report involving a dilution in the role of the Policing Authority will “concentrate power” in the hands of Government and Garda management, a leading policing expert has said.

Professor Dermot Walsh said the recommendations will be to the “detriment” of effective oversight and said it was vital the plans be “fundamentally reworked”.

His intervention comes as Policing Authority chair Josephine Feehily is today expected to express her views regarding the proposals.

Her comments are due to follow a private meeting among authority members and the oversight body’s first public meeting with Commissioner Drew Harris.

The Policing Commission report, published last week, laid out a blueprint of reform in policing and oversight and recommended a Garda Síochána Board. Similar to a board of directors, it would provide internal governance over the commissioner and provide him or her with support and expertise.

The board would have a non-executive chair appointed by the Government following an open process, backed by a full-time executive director and a secretariat. The report said the body would be “accountable” to the Government.

The board will support the commissioner, who the report recommends be given significant extra powers to allow him or her to be both a police boss and a chief executive, with control over finance, HR, etc.

The report envisages the commissioner being able to appoint his or her own “leadership team”. The responsibility for promotions of senior officers should be taken from the Policing Authority and given back to the commissioner, under the board’s oversight.

The board will also muscle in on the authority’s role in devising policing priorities and strategies and have overall responsibility for budgets. It (and no longer the authority) will nominate people for Garda commissioner and deputy commissioner to the Government.

The Garda Board proposal was the only recommendation in the report which caused internal dissent, with two of its 11 members (Dr Vicky Conway and Dr Eddie Molloy) objecting.

Prof Walsh, co-director of research at Kent Law School and an author on criminal justice, policing and accountability in Ireland said: “The commission’s proposals will concentrate power more acutely in the hands of the government and Garda management at the expense of strengthening broad-based democratic accountability.”

He said: “They will merely secure the perpetuation of a mutually cosy and opaque relationship between powerful political interests and senior Garda management in this country, to the detriment of an effective, efficient and fully accountable police organisation that serves the needs of all communities.

He added: “It is vital that the commission’s proposals are fundamentally reworked in any implementing legislation.”