Drew Harris defends decision to investigate garda who lent bike to elderly man during covid

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris old the Public Accounts Committee: 'The problem is all the facts as they were initially known are not in the public domain.'

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has defended a decision to investigate a garda in the midlands for lending a bicycle from Garda stores to a pensioner, saying not all the facts are in the public domain.

Mr Harris said he could not agree with the criticism of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) that the decision to conduct a disciplinary process on the garda sergeant based in the midlands “lacked common sense and proportionality”.

The sergeant in question had loaned a 70-year-old man the bicycle from the Garda Property and Exhibits Management System (Pems) at the beginning of the covid pandemic to help the man exercise in order to alleviate a risk to his health from blood clots.

In doing so, he had failed to file the necessary paperwork, an issue which eventually led to his suspension for three years and his house being searched by the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

The Director of Public Prosecutions eventually decided the garda sergeant had no case to answer. However, he remained on suspension for a further two years while the case worked its way through the gardaí’s internal disciplinary system.

Under questioning from Fine Gael’s Alan Dillon at the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Harris said: “No, I don’t agree” when the issue of proportionality of response in the case was put to him.

“The problem is all the facts as they were initially known are not in the public domain,” he said, adding it was “absolutely essential” the “integrity” of the Pems system be maintained.

“The Pems system contains literally thousands of pieces of property and exhibits,” he said, including “a huge amount of cash, a huge amount of drugs, firearms”.

He said the importance of the system was underlined by its having been "put in place at huge expense” and linked to the Garda Pulse system to ensure the “continuity of evidence and the security of property that comes into our possession”.

Mr Harris said there was a “very clear policy” with regard to how items within the Pems are to be handled and bicycles were “specifically” discussed within same.

“I’m not quite sure what a common sense approach is, if you resile yourself that you won’t be taking care of the property in your possession,” the commissioner said. 

Of the prosecution he said: “I saw the rationale for why that was done and that it was done.”

Later, the Garda Representative Association issued a statement welcoming the fact its member has returned to full duties as of Thursday. 

"We believe the process has fully vindicated our member and endorsed the integrity of his actions and decision making," it said. "However, the Commissioner's comments today before the Public Accounts Committee has done little to diffuse the anger and disillusionment felt by both the member concerned and his family and colleagues within An Garda Síochána over the entire matter.

"On a day that should be about acknowledging the finding of no wrongdoing and restoring the dignity and reputation of this member, the Garda Commissioner has chosen to make comments that had the potential to cast a doubt over that reputation.

"We believe that instead of making comments which could be interpreted as questioning those findings, the Commissioner should have perhaps conceded that this entire investigation was in part mishandled, escalated and then drawn out beyond normal comprehension."

Recruitment struggle

Addressing the gardaí’s struggle to bolster their numbers, the commissioner bemoaned the covid crisis, which he said had prevented the employment of 1,500 members.

He said An Garda Síochána had “lost the opportunity” to recruit those gardaí due to the “public safety restrictions on educational establishments including the Garda College in place at the time”.

Garda numbers have been largely static for some time, despite the force’s current budget being the largest it has ever had, with the recruitment crisis coming to national prominence amid multiple jarring instances of anti-social behaviour seen in Dublin across 2023, culminating in the riots last November.

Discussing the riots, Mr Harris said the Garda response had been “to use a sporting analogy, one of scramble defence”.

He said the force was “already better prepared” to deal with such incidents in future however.