Tag Archives: An Garda Síochána

From left: barrister Michael McDowell, Sgt Mauric McCabe, Lorraine McCabe and solicitor Sean Costello arrive at Dublin Castle this morning.

The Disclosures Tribunal is resuming in Dublin Castle this afternoon.

Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe has continued to answer questions about the alleged smear against him by senior ranks of An Garda Síochána.

Olga Cronin (you may know her from the telly!) is live tweeting from Dublin Castle on on the Broadsheet feed here.

Rollingnews.

Meanwhile…

Hello you.

RTÉ Crime Correspondent Paul Reynold attends the Disclosures Tribunal where he heard Sgt McCabe outline claims of bias against Mr Reynolds during his reporting for the station on the outcome of the O’Higgins Commission.

More to follow.

Rollingnews

Conor Lally, in The Irish Times, reports:

The Policing Authority has told senior Garda management that checks made to establish if all homicides were investigated properly were not robust enough and must now be carried out independently.

Last year, it emerged that 41 out of 524 killings deaths needed to be further examined, amid concerns some should been registered as murder c ases. Twelve were subsequently reclassified as homicides.

Now, however, the Policing Authority, which is chaired by the former head of the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily, has raised questions about the results of the two-stage Garda inquiry.

In the first phase, Garda data analysts checked classifications, but they did not have sight of the full case files so they had no way to check if the investigations were sufficient for suspected murder, not manslaughter, or a lesser charge.

…During a private meeting last November, senior Garda management was told by the authority that form of review was not good enough because it lacked independence.

According to minutes from the meeting, the Policing Authority questioned whether such an approach was “sufficiently robust, relying as it did on a review by the person who conducted the initial investigation”.

The authority members told the Garda that a new review, independent of those officers involved in the original investigations, was needed. The Policing Authority has confirmed it awaits an update on that instruction.

Policing Authority orders homicide review despite Garda assurances (The Irish Times)

Rollingnews

Context

Thanks Alan Bracken

This afternoon.

Further to news no more Garda overtime was to be incurred this year, except in relation to the Hutch and Kinahan feud and patrols at Dublin Port…

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he was “very concerned” at Mr Leahy’s instruction and “the only people who could possibly be pleased with this are criminals”.

In response, the Taoiseach said he shares the concerns about any ban on overtime in December.

However, he said, it was agreed by Cabinet yesterday that there will be a supplementary estimate for the Garda of €50m to cover pay, including €42m for overtime.

Mr Varadkar said that because overtime is paid for a month in arrears, this meant that December’s overtime would be covered in the 2018 budget.

Worth every cent.

Pause.

FIGHT!

Taoiseach says garda overtime bill will be paid for December (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

A Garda checkpoint

Further to the publication last week of An Garda Siochana’s internal inquiry into the number of breath tests that members carried out between 2009 and 2016.

And how they discovered there was more than 1.4million fake breath tests recorded between 2009 and 2016…

The Garda Representative Association has released the following statement:

The GRA questions why Garda Management required data on the number of negative breath tests at a time when Garda resources were scarce or diminishing.

This data was utilised as a crude measure of productivity – and fed into a culture of competition among senior ranks to improve their promotion chances.

No one can categorically say that it was our members falsifying data – we have numerous examples of supervisors and managers having input into this system.

There was also little or no training and the recording process was obviously flawed. We have to ask who wanted this data recorded in the first place – and what does it purport to show?

Goodhart’s Law states that when a measure becomes a target – it ceases to become a good measure.

During the height of the recession when garda numbers had been significantly reduced, we were told by Garda Management figures – and propagated by Government – that crime figures were falling.

We blew the whistle and said that crime figures were being ‘massaged’ downwards – and we were vindicated by the Garda Síochána Inspectorate and latterly the Central Statistics Office.

It is clear in the Report that Garda Management do not wish to be blamed for this debacle – but it is entirely of their own making.

Their obsession with data collection, for no clear and distinct purpose, while our members were issued with endless directives at a time of under-resourcing, no training, increased workloads and an unclear system of collation was a policy of failure.

Our members will not be scapegoated for ill-considered policies – and this should be the focus of political attention.

If the people of Ireland have been let down; then it is in the management and deployment of scant resources to appease the need for purposeless data by those in power.

Via Garda Representative Association

Previously: Another Half A Million

Rollingnews

Update:

Watch to the end.

Nothing less than radical reform will do.

Caution: Some salty language.

Anthony Sheridan writes:

And so the usual avalanche of meaningless, naïve and uninformed analysis is upon us in response to the latest scandal – the sacking of yet another Garda Commissioner.

Yes, she was sacked, there are many ways to sack a person without actually seeming to do so.

So for those who wish to bypass all the utter bullshit that will be spewed out over the coming weeks in response to this latest episode of police/political corruption – here’s the stripped down truth.

Our police force is an irredeemably corrupt organisation. It will never be reformed from the inside because to do so would mean having to retire, fire and prosecute hundreds if not thousands of police officers.

Real reform would also mean establishing a truly independent police force that would see the severing of the corrupt nexus between the force and the corrupt political system principally made up of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour.

A politically independent police force would mean corrupt politicians would find themselves under regular investigation for their criminal activities.

A politically independent police force would see, for the first time in our history, bankers, property developers, members of the legal profession, civil servants, so-called regulators, judges and even police officers regularly facing justice before the courts.

A politically independent police force will never become a reality until the corrupt political system is first removed from power.

All other talk/analysis surrounding this issue should be treated for what it is – utter bullshit.

Garda corruption: the stripped down truth (Anthony Sheridfasn, Public Inquiry)

Rollingnews

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Tables from the garda internal investigation into fake breath tests [click to enlarge]

Yesterday evening.

An Garda Siochana published their internal investigations into the fake breath test figures and the 14,700 wrongful convictions for motoring offences.

They can be read here and here.

The inquiry into the fake breath tests discovered there was more than 1.4million fake breath tests recorded between 2009 and 2016.

Meanwhile, the Policing Authority has hired financial auditors Crowe Horwath to conduct its own independent investigation into the matters and that’s expected to be completed by September 25.

It’s been reported that Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan is due to appear before the Policing Authority three days later on September 28.

Meanwhile…

Conor Lally, in The Irish Times, reports:

Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan released a statement yesterday about the Garda’s reports into inflated breath tests and the fixed-charge notice system. He said he was disturbed by the findings and expected the reports to be published later in the day.

But Garda Headquarters never had any intention of publishing the reports any time soon. It wanted to wait until consultants hired by the Policing Authority to examine the same issues had completed their work.

But the Garda has now been forced to go public with the reports because Mr Flanagan, in public, told Ms O’Sullivan she had to publish yesterday.

And if the Policing Authority’s consultants find anything nasty that the Garda reports overlook, it could be the end of the road for Ms O’Sullivan.

Winter is coming for Garda Commissioner (Conor Lally, The Irish Times)

Previously: Another Half A Million

A Breathtaking Timeline

Darragh McDonagh, in The Times of Ireland, reports:

An Garda Síochána is set to spend up to €255,000 on a survey to find out what the public think of the organisation.

The policing authority is seeking a company to provide public survey services over 12 months. The contract is worth up to €255,000 excluding VAT, according to official tender documents.

The documents state that the survey plays an important role in the organisation: “The objective for An Garda Síochána is a top quality survey of public attitudes relating to awareness and effectiveness of garda publicity campaigns, and perceptions of crime at local and national level.”

The public will be asked their “views of the garda organisation and how it can be improved”…

Gardaí to pay €255,000 for public surveys (The Times of Ireland)

Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan and other senior Garda staff at the Public Accounts Committee last month

This morning.

In the Irish Examiner.

Daniel McConnell reports:

“In 2016, when allegations of a smear campaign against Sgt Maurice McCabe emerged, the spend by the force with the Communications Clinic, owned by Terry Prone, jumped from €10,400 to €92,995, according to figures obtained by the Irish Examiner.

Garda sources denied that the money primarily went on Ms O’Sullivan and senior officers, insisting it mainly went on training superintendents who deal with the media. However, senior officers who appear before Oireachtas committees do receive training in advance of hearings.

…The amount paid by the force to the Communications Clinic and Carr Communications between 2014 and now is €137,626. Just €4,620 of the total amount went to Carr Communications, the figures reveal.

So far in 2017, €28,851 has been paid to the Communications Clinic.

In response to a parliamentary question from Ms Murphy, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said his officials spent €27,313 with the Communications Clinic between 2014 and 2016.”

Gardaí spend thousands on ‘coaching’ for appearances before Dáil committees (Irish Examiner)

This afternoon.

In the Dáil.

During Questions on Promised Legislation.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald spoke about the late Dara Quigley and her question was responded to by Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald.

Mick Barry, of the Solidarity-People Before Profit party, also spoke about Dara and Fine Gael’s Minister of State for Mental Health Helen McEntee responded to him.

Their exchanges:

Mary Lou McDonald: “Tánaiste, yesterday, the Taoiseach indicated that you would be more than happy, in fact delighted, it seemed, to come before the House and make a statement on the matters surrounding Templemore and some of the issues that we touched on and Leaders’ Questions. You also indicated that you would be quite happy to take questions in that regard. So I want to know, when you propose to do that.

“And can I also say, Tánaiste, when you take to your feet  on that occasion, I would like you also to shed some light on the case of Dara Quigley. A young woman who died by  suicide on April 12. She had been detained by gardaí some days previously, under the Mental Health Act. She had been walking naked on a Dublin street when detained and Garda CCTV footage of this detention  was posted on Facebook. A really deplorable and revolting turn of events and something that has brought great hardship to her family and clearly brought very, very great distress to Dara. So we mark her passing and when we talk about Garda culture and reform and accountability, I suppose this the rawest end, the sharpest end of deplorable, a deplorable culture of humiliation and disregard for human beings.”

“So, Tánaiste, I hope that you will, as the Taoiseach promised, come before the House, make your statement, take questions and I hope also that you might shed some light on the accountability that will be held for the life of Dara Quigley.”

Frances Fitzgerald: “Well, in relation to the individual case that you mention, deputy. Everybody would be totally disturbed and appalled by the story that has been reported in the media and actions are following on from that. As you know, that has been reported, there is an investigation and there is a GSOC inquiry but, just to say, of course our thoughts are with, are with that young woman’s family, given the appalling and very, very sad sequence of events. No doubt, the business committee can discuss the question of ministers appearing before the Dáil and, certainly, I want to make the point that, I don’t want to cut across in any way the work that the Public Accounts Committee is doing in relation to Templemore.”

…

Mick Barry: “There has been media comment on the circumstances leading up to the death of the journalist and blogger Dara Quigley. Very serious questions have been raised about the Garda Síochána and their treatment of the most vulnerable in society. I want to leave those questions for another day.”

“Today, I want to ask you a question on dual diagnosis. Dara suffered and struggled with both addiction and mental health problems. She received help from many agencies but what was available was not sufficient. A particular problem was the lack of dual diagnosis services for psychiatric and addiction problems are treated together in a professional and properly funded manner. My question to the Tánaiste: does she see a legislative pathway to addressing this problem?”

Helen McEntee: “Just to join you in offering my condolences to her family and to her friends. This is, you know, it’s an absolutely terrible situation and it’s deplorable what has happened consequently since. The issue of dual diagnosis is something that we haven’t dealt with in the past and we know that in a significant number of suicides, there is a link between drug or alcohol use as well. We’re currently developing a clinical programme on the issue of dual diagnosis.”

“We’ve appointed a national clinical lead who will be working to develop a programme which means that if somebody is suffering from either a drug or alcohol problem that is leading on to a mental health problem, that there will be a clear clinical pathway for our doctors and nurses within our acute hospitals but also in our primary care settings so there’s work well underway and we’d be hoping to continue that into the year.”

Watch Dáil proceedings live here