Judicial inquiry only way to tackle GSOC crisis

Trust in the Garda and its accountability has been broken by the revelations this week, writes Mark Kelly

IN less than a week, a dramatic front page story in a Sunday newspaper has turned into a full-blown crisis of confidence in Garda accountability mechanisms.

Three powerful players sit at the apex of our current policing accountability system: The justice minister, the Garda Commissioner, and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. The quality of their interdependent relationship strongly influences the extent to which members of An Garda Síochána can be held to account. When that relationship is exposed as frayed and distrustful, public confidence in the effectiveness of our police complaints system suffers almost immediately.