Gardaí should have shown some cop-on

The cultural malaise that has been exposed in recent years infects all ranks, writes Michael Clifford, columnist of the year.

Was there anything more grating during the week than the whine of a whinge fest emanating from Killarney? For it was in the salubrious Co Kerry town that the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) gathered to mull over how awful is their world.

It would have been nice not to have to write about the gardaí this weekend, but events in Killarney couldn’t be ignored.

One might have thought that under the circumstances, the AGSI might have kept a low profile this year. After all, there was plenty to be chagrined about in the months running up to the conference.

Instead what emerged was an obnoxious whinge fest. The Minister for Justice didn’t attend, which was a poor form on her part. But her failure to travel had the top bods in the AGSI describing themselves as “abandoned”, as if they were lost little children.

Then on Tuesday, the garda commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan did attend. The delegates gratuitously insulted her by greeting her arrival with silence. Nobody was expecting a North Korean-style thunderous round of applause, but the abandonment of basic courtesy for the head of a disciplined force evoked an image of sour malcontents.

Ms O’Sullivan has plenty of questions to answer, but none that involve her actions or attitudes towards the AGSI. Yet she was given the silent treatment, as if she had deeply wounded or offended the delicate flowers in attendance.

There are two principle reasons why the AGSI’s conference should have been informed by shame rather than whinging.

Last October, the association went to the brink with a threat to strike over pay. It organised its proposed protest in such a way as to avoid breaking the law. The move was clever, but contemptuous of the officers’ oath to serve the State. Gardai are precluded from striking for very good reason that their services are vital to maintain order. They all sign up for that on day-one.

Yet the AGSI was on the point of invoking the nuclear option. Led by its president, Antoinette Cunningham, an excellent communicator, the association garnered some public sympathy with their yarns of living on the edge of want.

The Government blinked, the Labour court came up with a €50m solution for the AGSI and rank-and-file members, and a delicate public pay policy was blown to bits.

Then a month later a different picture emerged. Far from living on the edge of want, most of the AGSI members are having a high old time of it.

A report into garda pay found that in the preceding year the force’s sergeants earned an average of €72,690. For inspectors the average income that year was €85,423. Police officers in middle management earning that level of salaries were prepared to ditch their oath and strike on the basis that they were being grossly underpaid.

Defending her members at the time, Ms Cunningham told Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ that the reported rates were based on overtime which is “a necessary evil”. Garda overtime an evil? For some mid-ranking members down the years, that “evil” paid for the second house.

Ms Cunningham also indicated that the AGSI would in time produce figures showing the pay report to be inaccurate. No such figures were ever produced. So much for the strapped, disciplined members of the ASGI. Notably, the whinging in Killarney made no mention of pay.

The second reason that perhaps a little humility might have shown up at the conference was the one million fake breath tests. Apparently the AGSI members were offended that Noirin O’Sullivan had stated that the fake tests were attributable to “at best incompetence, at worst deception”. This, some claimed, was a smear on all the force.

No individual or rank has as yet had their collar felt about what was essentially a widespread fraud. But if any ranks should be running for cover it is surely sergeants and inspectors.

Both are integral to traffic units in various districts. The idea that one million fake breath tests could be recorded without the knowledge, or even complicity, of a large cohort of middle-ranking officers hardly stacks up.

The association’s general secretary, Joe Jacob, said in Killarney that there was fear that the finger will point at the AGSI members.

“I don’t believe the blame will rest with us. I believe it’s a problem with processes, a problem with training.”

One might have thought that the ability to count would have been a prerequisite to be admitted to training for An Garda Siochana.

But instead of any humility on that matter, we got a display of righteous indignation. How dare the commissioner apologise for the force as a whole when no concrete evidence has yet been uncovered that any member of the AGSI had any hand, act or part in the despicable thing!

Noirin O’Sullivan is in the spotlight at the moment, rightly criticised for much. But to see mid-ranking gardaí attempt to use her to deflect from their own conduct in recent times was less than edifying.

There was one issue on which the conference delegates could have taken the commissioner to task.

She stands accused of allegedly targeting an association member in the most grievous manner. Ms O’Sullivan has been named in the terms of reference for the Charleton Tribunal, examining the alleged smearing of Sergeant Maurice McCabe.

Ms O’Sullivan denies the claims, but a stance by the AGSI on behalf of a member highly regarded by the public might have garnered a little more respect than the whinge fest. Reflection on how exactly McCabe had been dealt with, and how the force should be more accommodating to those who point out malpractice, would have been worthwhile.

Except those are not the type of issues which preoccupy the AGSI. No fodder there was a whinge or a rant. Extolling good practice does not make for good anger.

Interestingly, the one time that AGSI went all quiet was on publication of the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation report last year.

When it emerged that a garda sergeant may have been subjected to character assault behind closed doors, his association ran for cover rather than get angry on behalf of their member.

Any of the body’s executive who were feeling “abandoned” this week should have a word with Sergeant Maurice McCabe about what it feels like to be really abandoned by one’s own staff association.

These are tough times for all ranks within An Garda Siochana. Morale is low, scrutiny has been ramped up, confidence in the force has taken a number of hits.

During transition, it is inevitable that staff associations are going to lash out against uncomfortable change. But the cultural malaise that has been exposed in recent years infects all ranks.

To react with righteous indignation in the wake of the ill-discipline of last October, and the scandal of fake breath tests, is taking the public for right fools.