What is really wrong with Garda culture

Has there ever been a man who has had a bigger impact on the Garda than Sgt Maurice McCabe? He, or more precisely, his revelations – and the bungled handling of which – cost a minister for justice his job.

They have also squeezed out a Garda commissioner, a Department of Justice secretary general and a confidential recipient, and necessitated a raft of inquiries and reports including commissions of investigation.

And now there are even more whistleblower allegations of a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe being examined by a former High Court judge.

Some of those who were at the fore in raising the latest case have been very careful to map the allegations on to those currently holding the top justice jobs in the State.

As Clare Daly TD put it under legal privilege in the Dáil recently, the allegation is that the smear campaign was carried out "with the sanction of the current and former Garda commissioners".

This puts it, or seeks to put it, at the door of Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.

If the allegation of Ms O'Sullivan's involvement were to stick – and for now it is only an allegation – there would be serious implications not just for the commissioner, but for the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald.

And even Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who was so instrumental in engineering the cliff from which Ms O'Sullivan's predecessor Martin Callinan jumped, would be under pressure.

To lose one Garda commissioner may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose another would look like carelessness.

And in the current dicey political climate – with the Varadkars and Coveneys of this world circling and rutting – even a mild dose of carelessness could prove fatal.

Maurice McCabe and the things he saw and the things done to him may yet still have a way to run.

Real problem

But after all this scandal, all the ugly and shocking revelations and back biting, reports, recommendations and promises to do better, have we overlooked the real problem in the Garda?

Has all of this even distracted us from the deeper and much more troubling cultural ticks at the heart of Irish policing?

The Garda Inspectorate, which has done the widest and deepest research ever into the Garda, has suggested as much.

Its views are significant because of the nature of its work.

Established in the post Morris Tribunal era, along with the Garda Ombudsman, the inspectorate examines Garda practices and procedures and recommends changes and reform.

It has compiled 11 major reports to date and made 574 recommendations – which it says have always been accepted, just not always implemented.

Its reports have dealt with senior management structures in the Garda, procedures at armed siege incidents, roads policing and fix charged notice systems, resource allocation, responses to child sexual abuse and front-line supervision.

Its “crime investigation” report is the biggest body of research into the Garda in the history of the State.

And while some of the best-practice policing it recommends could only be managed by the force of 20,000 rather than the current 13,000, it is nonetheless regarded as a seminal piece of work; a status likely to grow over time.

Its senior people have done their homework and studied not only the best and worst of Irish police work but also the international context.

They have taken a special interest in New Zealand and Australia where huge cultural reforms have taken place in policing.

Brushed aside

When asked about whistleblowers at the joint Oireachtas committee on justice this week, its personnel almost brushed aside the questioning.

Its deputy chief inspector Mark Toland, a former senior police officer in the UK, and Eimear Fisher were clearly much more eager to discuss the culture of fear and blame in the Garda.

That, for them, was the key issue facing the force right now.

“The blame culture [manifests in] the hesitancy to use initiative and the hesitancy to take action in certain circumstances because if one put one’s head above the parapet and if you did something wrong that you’d be blamed,” Fisher said.

“It could be career threatening , career damaging and so on . . . it is a situation that hinders initiative and there has to be a scope for leadership and initiative and encouragement of initiative.”

In agreement was Mr Toland, who spent 30 years as a police officer in London; rising to the rank of chief superintendent managing the training of 4,000 recruits and at other times running three London boroughs.

He said that while Garda members he had spoken to had referenced a “can-do” approach through the organisation, they also pointed to a damaging culture.

“Many described the organisation as insular, defensive, with a blame culture where many leaders are reluctant to make decisions and to speak up.”

Garda members were decent, willing and able but they were afraid of being decapitated by those one step further up the ladder if they put so much as a foot wrong.

There you have it; an astonishing conclusion.

The senior people in the organisation that has examined all of the Garda procedures and services and all of its culture, not just specific whistleblower complaints, is worried that even senior Garda officers – never mind all those under them – can’t, don’t and won’t speak up.

It is hard to see anything arising from the whistleblower allegations and the investigation of same that tackles the suffocating fear and blame embedded deep into the fabric of the Garda.

After years of scandals, heads rolling and scalps taken comes a worrying question. Have we all been having the wrong conversation?

Conor Lally is security and crime editor