Dysfunction in Garda and Shatter’s department

Anything other than a clear acknowledgement by the heads of law and order this week that the penalty points system was dysfunctional or in a mess would have been worrying.

But Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan were nearly dragged kicking and screaming into finally admitting the fines system needs fixing and has for some time. This was 15 months after Independent TDs used the Dáil to raise concerns about gardaí wiping penalty points from divers licences.

Both Mr Shatter and Mr Callinan were also forced to recognise the role of garda whistleblowers — who first raised concerns — after the publication of a damning Garda Inspectorate report into the fixed charge processing system.

Indeed, it is now accepted the report has vindicated claims originally made by Garda John Wilson and Sgt Maurice McCabe.

An examination of what Mr Shatter said last year about whistleblower claims as well as the comments of Mr Callinan show a discrepancy between what they accepted before and what the evidence about widespread breaches in the fines system has now compelled them to admit.

Following claims in the Dáil about abuses of the penalty points system in December 2012, Mr Callinan came out and in an unprecedented statement stood by his force.

The Garda chief said there was “no question of what has been described as a culture of non-enforcement of penalties being tolerated by An Garda Síochána”.

We now know from the Garda Inspectorate report that there was “widespread breaches of policy” in the deletion of penalty points.

Chief Insp Robert Olson this week went further. “Nobody was watching the store, that’s what we found,” he said launching the report.

In fact, the inspectorate investigation of the fines system found there were no internal controls, no audits and poor management. There were 133 cancelling garda authorities or agents. Some cancelled every fine, some none.

This might not be exactly a “culture”, but it was nothing short of systematic.

When the internal Garda O’Mahoney report was released on the penalty points scandal last May, Mr Callinan said he was “disappointed to discover that there was less than full compliance with policy and procedures”. We now know, after the independent Garda Inspectorate report this week, that it was a lot worse than this.

Full compliance? There was clearly little if no compliance in the 5% or thousands of penalty points cancelled.

After the inspectorate report was released this week, Mr Callinan said its probe contained “valuable feedback and advice on how the system can be enhanced over the short, medium and long term”.

He also said the force looked forward to feeding into how the inspectorate’s radical recommendations might be implemented.

Furthermore, he said he supported gardaí who reported wrongdoing and played down previous remarks where he suggested the actions of whistleblowers was “disgusting”.

A look at Mr Shatter’s own comments reveal an even more dramatic climbdown on the points saga.

After reading the O’Mahoney garda probe on the fines system last May, Mr Shatter warned that garda whistleblowers “have responsibilities”.

“Their concerns must be real and genuine, and based on evidence rather than conjecture....” he argued.

But after the inspectorate report was released Mr Shatter conceded that whistleblowers had played an important role.

In a nutshell, he said that the points saga would not have been investigated if it was not for them.

There are a number of pending reports on the points system and alleged garda malpractice which may add to the sense of “dysfunction” in the force and indeed in the minister’s own department.