Ordinary gardai not against reform of force, party told

Labour Party meeting/Garda reform: Rank-and-file gardaí are ready to embrace major reforms even if the Government, senior officers and Garda representative organisations are slow to do so, the Labour Party has said.

The need to reform the force featured significantly during the second day of the party's meeting of TDs, Senators and other general election candidates in Cork yesterday.

"We know from our nationwide surveys that crime and anti-social behaviour is making life a misery for thousands of young people, families and the elderly," said Labour TD Brendan Howlin.

He said an independent Garda authority was "absolutely needed" despite the objections of Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and senior Department of Justice officials.

Describing the meeting as "one of the most productive I have attended", Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said ideas offered on the issue would be fed into the party's work to prepare policies for the next election

Mr Howlin said Mr McDowell's predecessor, Fianna Fáil's John O'Donoghue, rejected all of the Labour Party's proposals developed six years ago that used the model of reforms then beginning to be implemented in the North.

"O'Donoghue threw the whole thing into the bin, saying that there was no need for any of that. Since then we have had change by instalments, but we haven't had real change."

He said the Garda Inspectorate, headed by former Boston police chief Kathleen O'Toole, has been given an unclear mandate.

Dublin Central TD Joe Costello said a commission of inquiry, along the lines of the Patten Commission in the North in the late 1990s, should be set up to hear the policing preferences of local communities.

Dublin West TD Joan Burton said gardaí were not encouraged to enter community-policing roles because few with such a background got promoted later. "I am not aware of any officer from chief superintendent rank upwards who have spent a long period as community police specialists."

Labour's deputy leader Liz McManus said relationships between gardaí and local communities depended on the local superintendent. "If the superintendent is good there will be co-operation."