A new set of Garda allegations - Immediate action is essential

If weekend reports that gardaí are still cancelling penalty points for law-breaking  drivers are true, and there is absolutely no reason to imagine that they are not, then our police force has become a sorry, dysfunctional and, though it is tragic and frightening to have to use these descriptions, a corrupt and out-of-control force.

The claim is based on  information, given in recent days to Dáil Public Accounts Committee chairman Fianna Fáil's John McGuinness, by garda whistle blower and Traffic Corps officer Sgt Maurice McCabe. They were published by The Sunday Times.

Sgt McCabe insists that that the abuses remain widespread and continue on a "wholesale" basis despite repeated assurances from the highest levels of garda management that the inappropriate practice had ceased. The allegation takes on an even more serious aspect because Sgt McCabe has told Mr McGuinnness that he had made an official report on the ongoing misuse of power but to no avail.

The direct implications are so challenging for Government that they cannot be ignored. Neither can they be long-fingered, an immediate and convincing response is essential.

The very least that should happen  is that the appointment of a new commissioner be   deferred until after the  allegations are assessed. If they are upheld  then the case for appointing someone  from outside the  force becomes almost impossible to dismiss.  If they are not then the public can feel comfortable if an insider is appointed.

The latest round of  allegations suggest that garda management is incapable of controlling or disciplining the force. It also suggests that  what seems a considerable number of officers imagine they can behave with impunity and that the law need not be applied if they feel it an intrusion  or inconvenient. These are the characteristics of a bent police force let loose in a banana republic.

That these startling allegations  come fast on the heels of the  opening round of a scandal linked to the  resignation of former Minister for Justice  Alan Shatter,  the resignation, though the widespread belief is that he was fired, of Garda Commissioner  Martin Callinan and the removal of the Garda Confidential Recipient Oliver Connolly from office puts the scale of the issues in play in an alarm-bell perspective.

It should be remembered that Sgt McCabe's first round of allegations about traffic points legislation being abused were ignored, dismissed as fantasy and,  in testimony given to a Dáil Committee by then Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan, described as "disgusting". But most importantly it must be remembered that his allegations were upheld by the Guerin report which was published in May. That vindication gives the weight to Sgt McCabe's latest allegations which undermines further the credibility of An Garda Siochana.

We, and it must be assumed and hoped, that the great majority of gardaí cannot afford or tolerate this malpractice and its consequences. Neither can the  damage the claims do to the essential relationship between police and citizens be tolerated.  An unambiguous and early  statement for the garda representative organisations is essential. one that  reassures the  public that the malpractice described by Sgt McCabe will neither be tolerated or defended by those organisations.