GSOC Boylan report - Gardaí have questions to answer

The integrity of a democracy depends on a respected, effective and honest police force, one that wins and cherishes the moral authority needed to do its job.

Equally, a police force that imagines itself unaccountable and beyond the reach of parliament has no place in a democracy like ours. Yesterday’s withering report from Garda Ombudsman Kieran FitzGerald raises concerns of the most profound kind, concerns that are exacerbated by the fact that it, extraordinarily, took four years to complete the Boylan investigation because of what the GSOC described as garda obstruction. That the GSOC reached this conclusion despite assurances last year from Commissioner Martin Callinan that gardaí were cooperating with the GSOC deepened those concerns. That Commissioner Callinan yesterday afternoon reiterated that the force had co-operated with the investigation — remember, it took four years to complete — suggests at the very least a peculiar, skewed understanding of what co-operation actually means.

It is hard to imagine, or at least let us hope it is, that gardaí investigating a crime would be so very patient with someone they wished to question in relation to it.

That only 17 of 63 GSOC requests for information were dealt with within the agreed three-month time limit, that six took over a year and that one request was never complied with suggests an organisation unwilling to play its part in necessary oversight routines.

That the GSOC found that garda procedures on dealing with informers were still inadequate, despite agreed changes after the Morris Inquiry, suggests a institutional haughtiness reminiscent of the Catholic hierarchy when they were first confronted with child abuse claims.

The GSOC report will do little to enhance the reputation of a force already in a difficult position. Station closures, a reduced garda presence in communities, especially rural communities, limited station opening times even in busy towns, all conspire to undermine the force’s validity. Though garda representative associations have rightly protested over cuts that limit their ability to deliver the kind of service that would inspire confidence there is unfortunately a feeling that An Garda Síochána is too often a conservative, inward looking and inflexible organisation slow to reform.

There is a feeling too that despite all of the pay cuts — or threatened cuts — that members, and many other public employees, enjoy privileges far beyond anything possible for the great majority of workers in this country. Pension entitlements and retirement arrangements that mean gardaí can leave the force in their early 50s seem particularly out of step at a time of economic crisis.

Under the Garda Síochána Act Justice Minister Alan Shatter can publish any report the GSOC watchdog sends him. He must publish the report on the Boylan affair and make clear what he intends to do on foot of its conclusions. The Director of Public Prosecutions should explain her decision that no prosecutions will be taken in the affair.

Sadly, the GSOC report again describes the toxic and unacceptable attitude towards accountability and transparency at the very heart of our public life. Unless that obstinate stonewalling is eradicated it will continue to undermine standards in public life, alienate citizens and protect wrongdoing that has no place in our society.