Call to allow overseas officers take up top Garda posts rejected

The Government has rejected a Policing Authority proposal that officers from other countries should be able to apply for senior Garda posts from the rank of superintendent upwards, it has emerged.

However, the chair of the authority, Josephine Feehily, said it will make the case again for appointments from overseas in its submissions to the Commission on the Future of Policing which was approved by the Cabinet earlier this month.

Organisations which have only "one front door" for the intake of senior staff have a closed culture as a result, Ms Feehily, the former head of the Revenue Commissioners, said in an interview with The Irish Times.

Currently, senior posts from superintendent to assistant commissioner level are restricted to applications from serving officers in the Garda and the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

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Shied away

Officers from other countries were able to apply for the post of Garda commissioner when it last became vacant in 2014, although some possible candidates are likely to have shied away because of the salary on offer.

Ms Feehily has also expressed concern about the pace and direction of reform in the force, saying many of the Garda Inspectorate’s recommendations have fallen by the wayside.

Some Garda members understood the need for real and lasting reform, but others still did not seem to appreciate the gravity of recent events and the extent to which public confidence had been undermined, she said.

Recalling recent conversations with gardaí, she said: “We’ve had tribunals before and we’ll have then again; that’s one remark that I recall.”

Breath tests

Asked about the breath tests controversy, she said she was surprised the Garda still did not have even anecdotal evidence to explain how one million tests actually carried out had been inflated to two million in the Garda’s official data.

The controversy emerged a month ago, and an interim report had been presented to the authority in recent days.

A review of inflated testing data in the south-east took place two years ago.

“The so-called examination, audit – whatever you want to call it – that document found [inflating of] 17 per cent; still a sizeable number,” said Ms Feehily. “I was surprised that that process did not attempt to attach reasons: ‘we’ve found this problem in the south-east and here are the reasons for it.’

“That’s why it can’t be called an audit, quite frankly. Audits have a rigour.”