Mick Clifford: Gun parts episode will further shake public trust in An Garda Síochána
In 2018, the then justice minister signed off on a request from a senior garda to allow the purchase of firearms parts. Unbeknownst to the minister, the parts were for a private gun club, and the bill was footed by An Garda Síochána. Stock Picture: Getty
Huge power is vested in the minister for justice of this State. He or she has an oversight function for An Garda Síochána, which in turn as a police force has enormous powers required to uphold the law.
All citizens can be subject to these powers, so it is vital that the use of power is carefully calibrated and proportionate.
Central to all of this is the requirement for a high degree of trust between the minister for justice and An Garda Síochána.
When that breaks down, alarm bells should sound.
Today’s front-page story in the 'Irish Examiner' goes to the heart of the issue of trust.
A senior garda obtained authorisation from the minister to import parts for firearms. Such authorisation is required under law.
Naturally, any minister — including his or her officials — who receive a request for authorisation is placing a high degree of trust in the garda applying. This kind of activity is operational.
No politician or official would question such a request, beyond a cursory glance to reassure themselves that what is being imported isn’t obviously crazy.
In July 2018, the minister of the day, Charlie Flanagan, signed off on such a routine request to allow the gardaí to function.
Except, unbeknownst to Mr Flanagan and his officials, this wasn’t routine. It was to source parts for weapons belonging to a private entity, a gun club.
Not just that, but once the parts were sourced and the weapons in question restored to proper use, the cost of the whole operation was footed by An Garda Síochána.
That is the general gist of what emerges from an internal investigation into the matter.
The garda in question claims that the parts were needed for guns to be used for training officers. Yet no officers use the type of weapons at issue.
The investigation found that the guns made their way back to the gun club from Garda HQ. And it confirmed that the police bore the cost of the whole operation.
There are a few features to the report into the investigation that leave questions hanging.
Despite what occurred, no disciplinary action is recommended. Neither is there any recommendation that the matter should be investigated for any possible criminal offences.
The report also includes arresting details of partial mitigation.
For instance, it suggests that the senior officer who transported the weapons from the gun club to Garda HQ and back might have been doing so legally under a 1925 act, if his purpose was indeed to use these guns for training Garda officers.
The report does not detail any instances of training, nor locates any officers who were trained with these weapons.
The report also notes that the evidence of two gardaí on one side is in conflict with that from a central figure in the gun club and from a firearms dealer who was aware of the whole matter.
But what of the authorisation given by the minister?
This matter first came to the attention of senior people in An Garda Síochána in 2019 when an officer who worked in the firearms area made a protected disclosure.
For some reason, the investigation into that was not completed until November 2024.
Under Section 41 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005, now superceded by Section 36 of the Police Security and Community Safety Act 2025, the Garda commissioner is obliged to inform the minister if a serious matter arises.
Is it serious that the minister of the day in 2018 may have unwittingly signed an authorisation to import gun parts for a private entity?
What, for instance, if an issue arose in the gun club with that weapon after it was returned?
If it malfunctioned, if somebody was injured or worse as a result, would the State be in any way liable or exposed to a claim for damages?
The report into this matter was completed in November 2024.
In February this year, Labour’s Alan Kelly asked the minister for justice, Jim O’Callaghan, if he had received a Section 41, as it is known, about it.
No, came the reply.
So the minister of the day was not informed when the possibility first arose in 2019.
And the current minister was not informed by last February, three months after the full story was documented in the internal report.
What does that do for trust between the minister for justice and the commissioner of An Garda Síochána?
Mr Kelly has stated in today’s that the minister for justice must investigate this whole affair.
What we do know is that an investigation has been conducted and a report compiled on the matter by a senior garda. But that is not where it should rest.
There is a long history in this country of internal investigations into serious internal matters being investigated by senior gardaí.
Later, it often emerges that these reports were in some ways less than complete, or robust, or even perhaps cast in a way that didn’t let in the full light.
This may have been down to oversight or innocent error but it has happened so many times, that model of investigation is not one that enjoys public confidence anymore.
For that reason as much as any, it is vital that Jim O’Callaghan now investigates this.
It’s not going away and the longer he stays his hand, the bigger the mess he will be tasked with cleaning up.
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