Garda not held accountable on penalty points issue, says PAC

Garda superintendents were not held accountable for the high failure rates in serving court summonses on drivers given penalty points, and some members of the force could be accused of "squaring" charges for offenders, according to a draft report from the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The committee yesterday discussed its draft report on the penalty points controversy, and TDs have been given until next Tuesday to suggest any changes to the document, with some suggesting it is not “hard-hitting” enough.

PAC chairman John McGuinness requested that deputies return to him with observations on the draft before it is finalised and sent to Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald. Some deputies privately complained the report is not critical enough of the Garda and indicated they will be making amendments.

Penalty points controversy

The report is also strongly critical of former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan’s handling of the penalty points controversy. Earlier this year at the PAC, Mr Callinan described the actions of whistleblowers Sgt Maurice McCabe and

John Wilson

as “disgusting”. Sgt McCabe also gave private testimony to the committee.

Speaking at yesterday’s PAC meeting, Mr McGuinness criticised the practice of gardaí conducting internal reports into contentious issues following the experience of the penalty points debacle.

He said "the day of internal reports or secret reports is over", after fellow committee member Shane Ross criticised an internal penalty points report carried out by An Garda Síochána as "soft".

Disciplinary proceedings

The internal report from Assistant Commissioner John O’Mahony found no evidence of corruption or deception but recommended three senior members of the force face disciplinary proceedings.

Mr McGuinness said “someone in the system has to shout stop to what is happening to whistleblowers” and the PAC draft report is “clear that a culture change is necessary” in the force when it comes to dealing with whistleblowers.

On the wider issue of fixed- charge notices, the report says “it is also the case that Garda superintendents are not being held responsible for the high failure rates in respect of the servicing of summons and it is not an issue on which performance is judged”.

“Another key issue examined by the committee was the fact that, notwithstanding that certain matters relating to cancellations were left to the judgment of senior Garda officers, certain gardaí had a much higher incidence of cancellations than their peers in other districts. Those statistics have no logical explanation and point to a more liberal attitude being taken by certain senior gardaí.”

The quashing of points without “proper recourse” to Garda regulations has left the force open “to the charge that some gardaí were amenable to ‘squaring’ charges and this has damaged the reputation of the force as a whole”.

The report also said a number of issues needed to be addressed following the controversy, such as the confidential reporting system in the force, giving greater protection to whistleblowers and changing internal review mechanisms.

Mr McGuinness acknowledged the Government had moved on some of these areas.