JUSTICE: Micheal McDowell will have a challenging time in the Department of Justice, having to introduce the first independent body to have powers of oversight and investigation into the Garda after a series of highly embarrassing and damaging revelations about alleged criminality and corruption, writes Jim Cusack, Security Editor.
The Morris inquiry into the allegations of serious criminal and corrupt activity involving gardaí in Donegal also looms over the new Minister.
Mr Justice Morris has wasted no time in setting up his inquiry and will begin hearing evidence at the core of the allegations within the coming months.
It is expected the Morris inquiry will hear some of the most damaging allegations ever made against the Garda Síochána. It is also anticipated that gardaí who come before the inquiry will make serious allegations about each other and against senior officers. Sources close to the previous internal Garda inquiry have indicated that Special Branch activities, particularly involving the handling of the Omagh bombing in August 1998, will come up during the inquiry.
The most damaging allegations likely to emerge from the Morris inquiry will be that gardaí planted explosives and drugs in an effort to fabricate evidence against innocent people.
Parallel with the damaging revelations from the Morris inquiry, the new Minister will introduce the first independent investigative and oversight body for the Garda. legislation for the establishment of the proposed independent Garda inspectorate is already well advanced within the Department of Justice and it could be in place by the end of this year or early in 2003. There has been criticism already from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties about the previous government's decision not to emulate the "accountability" mechanisms set up in Northern Ireland as part of the Patten police reform package.
The only outside or independent body to deal with controversies involving the Garda is the Garda Complaints Board.
Although set up in 1986, the board's investigative work has been largely stymied by legal challenges from gardaí facing complaints.
On Wednesday the board announced its first tribunal of inquiry into the Garda's handling of the May Day Reclaim the Streets demonstration.
Politicians have accepted that there is now a pressing need for an independent investigative body.