Corrupt gardaí must pay the price
No doubt the case of Frank Shortt will cost millions and yet the men who lied and acted corruptly escape scot-free with payouts and pensions.
It is a farce that those who were found corrupt by a tribunal are allowed huge payments and pensions while the State picks up the tab for their corruption.
Surely natural justice cries out that some punishment be inflicted on those who corruptly and illegally used the power the State vested in them?
Instead of being charged with criminal acts, the police are allowed to retire with lump sums and pension payments. It could only happen in Ireland where the politicians and the police are interlinked in a web of self interest and preservation.
The spectre of police corruption in Donegal and elsewhere will continue to haunt the politicians and it is only by having those who are proven to have acted corruptly brought before the criminal courts will some degree of faith be restored in the service.
For too long the politicians have been afraid of the power of the police - as the Justice Minister says, there cannot be a state within a state - and it is time that corrupt police faced the full rigours of the law just like any other citizen.
Joe Lynch
16 Beechgrove Avenue
Ballinacurra Weston
Limerick
