The representative body of rank-and-file gardaí has questioned the independence of Drew Harris’s appointment as Garda commissioner after comments by former taoiseach Leo Varadkar indicated the Government wanted an external candidate for the position.
At the organisation’s conference on Tuesday, Garda Representative Association (GRA) deputy general secretary James Morrisroe drew attention to comments made by the former taoiseach on an episode of the Path to Power podcast in September 2025.
Morrisroe said he was “actually shocked” to hear Varadkar say an outside candidate was deliberately chosen, questioning whether that had an impact on the independence of the process when it took place in 2018.
On the podcast, Varadkar said: “One of the difficulties Drew had was that he was from the outside. We made a deliberate decision to appoint somebody from outside the gardaí.
READ MORE
“We felt that was necessary at the time.”
Morrisroe said the comment “calls into question the independence of that competition, and there were members from inside An Garda Síochána that went for that competition, but apparently it was a done deal”.
“I’ll let you make up your own minds,” Morrisroe said.
In a statement to The Irish Times, Varadkar rejected the idea the process had a “predetermined outcome”.
“My recollection is that the post was advertised, there was an interview panel and Drew Harris was recommended to Government as the best candidate who’d applied.
“The major policy decision we made was to open it up to outside and out-of-state candidates given the need to drive reform of the gardaí just as was done with other public bodies,” Varadkar said, pointing to other government departments and the Central Bank of Ireland, which also opened their processes to external applicants.
“That was new and hadn’t been done before,” he said, but added: “There definitely was not a predetermined outcome.”
Speaking before an appearance at the GRA conference, Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said he was not aware of any concerns within the department over the appointment.
He said he had not heard the remarks on the podcast, and that only the most recent Garda commissioner appointment, of Justin Kelly, fell under his tenure as Minister for Justice.
He said that process had been “very fair”, and said he did not have any questions over the appointment of Drew Harris.
At the press conference, Morrisroe said Drew Harris oversaw a “discipline frenzy” around 2019 and 2020. He said that the system of discipline in the force meant that gardaí were left “afraid to go and do their work”.
“They are looking over their shoulder to see a discipline coming,” he said, noting that “around 2019 and 2020, it was an actual discipline frenzy”.
“It was discipline, discipline, discipline, for some reason, and that came from the top down.”
