Labour's Alan Kelly exposes alleged garda failures in gun safety and drug storage
If Alan Kelly hadn’t persisted, or hadn’t evidence that disputed the reply from the department, then the department could claim that it had no corporate knowledge of whatever was going on in An Garda Síochána about the holsters. Photo: Flickr Houses of Oireachtas
Last Tuesday, Labour TD Alan Kelly delivered a speech in the Dáil that suggest alarming developments in An Garda Síochána.
He had copious notes and a few exhibits. His narrative included an array of issues, such as faulty gun holsters, the use and storage of firearms and the discovery of a huge chunk of cocaine in what was apparently a garda’s personal locker. What was equally worrying was the apparent response to these allegations.
There doesn’t appear to have been any internal, not to mind external, inquiry. Not just that, but twice Kelly’s questions in the Dáil received responses from the Department of Justice that were inaccurate.
The issue over the holsters is probably the most pressing. It has been around for a while that there were problems with holsters for weapons used by most armed gardaí.
A protected disclosure in 2019 from a garda alleged that there was an inappropriate relationship between a senior garda and the owners of the saddlery where the holsters were purchased. Despite that, very little appears to have been done.
Then on June 11, 2020, a garda on duty outside the Israeli embassy in Dublin was injured in a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The garda was using the holster in question and following the incident the National Garda Technical Bureau (NGTB) examined the holster.
It was discovered by forensic experts attached to the Garda National Technical Bureau (GNTB) that the leather pistol holster issued to the member was so dangerously defective, the holster could actually engage the trigger and fire the weapon of its own accord, Kelly told the Dáil.
“It was further identified by the ballistic experts that the holster was so poorly designed, the firearm could be removed from the holster with so-called retention strap fully fastened. This left the gun open to removal by individuals other than the Garda member carrying the firearm.”
A week after that incident Detective Garda Colm Horkan was murdered in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, by Stephen Silver who had managed to get a hold of the detective’s gun and use it to murder him.
“Given what was known about the leather pistol holster removed from the scene of the accidental discharge on June 11, a week earlier, the question must be asked whether the defective holster should have been investigated for that incident as well,” Kelly said in the Dáil.
The understands that there was an examination but it was not conducted by the Technical Bureau, the only unit in the gardaí mandated to carry out such forensic tests. It is unclear why there was not the standard examination of the holster as had been the case with the incident a week earlier.
“For reasons unknown to me and the members of the GNTB, however, and this is the critical point, Detective Garda Horkan's holster was never presented to the GNTB for ballistic examination, despite the holster being gathered by GNTB crime investigators, bagged and tagged as a ballistic exhibit,” Kelly said.
He told the House the specific exhibit number which indicated the level of detail of which he had possession.
Meanwhile, a second report was compiled about the incident outside the Israeli embassy concerning the defective holster.
Kelly told the Dáil that this report contradicted the first, which had placed great store on the defects.
It is unclear why a second report was commissioned, or whether the first one was considered incomplete and if so, why.
A second protected disclosure about the holsters, from a different, more senior garda than the person who had submitted the first, was lodged with the comptroller and auditor general in late 2022.
In March 2023, the commissioner, according to Kelly, ordered the withdrawal of the holsters and told the minister for justice they were “shredded beyond use”.
Earlier, Kelly submitted questions to the Department of Justice on when it became aware that there was a problem with the holsters. The first reply didn’t reference any concerns raised.
“I asked for clarification from the minister's department and, amazingly, we suddenly found out concerns were raised in 2022. I then said that this was wrong, that it turns out concerns were raised in 2020. That is three responses to one letter. With these results, I am concerned about the minister's departmental functioning.
"If they were all removed and shredded, as the minister said in his response to my question, why can I get my hands on as many of them as I want, including the one I am holding in my hand now? These are the defective holsters.” With that Kelly held up one of the holsters to which he was referring.
The whole episode is troubling on different levels. The understands that the senior garda who made the protected disclosure is highly regarded by colleagues and, as one suggested, “a man who should be listened to”.
That does not infer that his allegations are all accurate but it suggests that they should be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated. So far, that has not happened.
The response to Kelly from the department is also concerning. If the Labour party deputy hadn’t persisted, or hadn’t evidence that disputed the reply from the department, then the department could claim that it had no corporate knowledge of whatever was going on in An Garda Síochána about the holsters.
Apart from that, the narrative as set out by Kelly rings too many familiar bells. Back in the days before the Maurice McCabe case and the tribunal that resulted, there was a culture that if anything untoward or even embarrassing was discovered, a circling of wagons and sense of denial ensued.
It was a culture where mistakes or infractions were not examined thoroughly with a view to learning and minimising the chances of a recurrence. Instead, it was a case of ‘nothing to see here, now move along please’.
Today, we are told that such a culture no longer exists. The disturbing details presented to the Dáil might give pause for thought on that.
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