GSOC bugging row - A welcome but essential clarification

That Minister for Justice Alan Shatter was able to tell the Dáil last evening that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission had informed him there was no evidence that its offices had been under technical or electronic surveillance is a very welcome development.

In reality it is much more than welcome. It is essential that the minister was in a position to do so because the integrity of our policing and justice systems would have been questioned — justifiably — had he and the GSOC not offered that steady-the-ship clarification.

The Government’s commitment to accountability and openness, already strained by the responsibilities of power but still a priority of the electorate, would have been another casualty of the affair. Mr Shatter’s announcement makes it possible too to be less concerned, though not entirely unconcerned, about how our legislature, An Garda Síochána and the GSOC interact. The episode also points to the reality of how very difficult it is to lead cultural change and impose new ideas and obligations on organisations once almost independent, unquestioned fiefdoms operating as satellites of the State.