Madam, – In September 2006 Garda Michael O’Boyce wrote an article for the Garda Review in which he advocated the establishment of an independent Garda Authority with duties including the appointment of the Garda Commissioner.
He said, “It seems the only way to implement true Garda reform is to establish an independent Garda Authority and allow them to appoint the Commissioner.”
His contribution came amid revelations at the Morris tribunal that certain gardaí in an endeavour to secure promotion had planted explosives and claimed their subsequent “finds” to be major operational successes against republican subversives.
It is to be remembered here that promotions within An Garda Síochána at or above the rank of superintendent required, in the final instance, Government approval; in this regard, interception by the Garda of paramilitary attacks in Northern Ireland had been a clear policy imperative for successive Irish governments since the Anglo-Irish Agreement was signed in 1985. Mr Justice Morris, in the course of one of his reports, singled out Garda O’Boyce as a GRA representative “who refused to lie for his conspiring colleagues”.
Garda O’Boyce’s article, published in the magazine of the Garda Representative Association, contrasted with previous bombastic denials by the GRA leadership as to the extent of indiscipline and poor management in the force during the 1990s. But his call for an independent authority was also a direct criticism of provisions to the contrary contained within the Garda Síochána Act 2005.
As he put it, for the Government it was “Better to face into an election pretending that you have reformed An Garda Síochána rather than actually set in train a process that will deliver the necessary reform”.
In his rhetoric the then justice minister Michael McDowell had framed the act as a paradigm for accountable policing. Rather, it tightened even further the system of centralised government control under which the force had operated since its inception.
Among other problems, the Garda Commissioner and subordinate commissioners hoping to succeed her/him, while selected in a process that now incorporates external review, remain subject for their appointments to final Government approval.
This is not to accuse Garda managers of being politically biased but to point to the risk that every senior officer faces should s/he fall from Government favour.
On Wednesday, Niall Collins, FF TD, a representative of the Government, called on the Garda Commissioner to dismiss Garda O’Boyce. The Minister for Justice said that the GRA needed to apologise to the Irish people. Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, from the unenviable position of a tightrope, summoned the GRA leadership to Garda Headquarters to administer to them a warning.
In this controversy so far the dynamics that play out in a system of centralised government control of policing have gone unmentioned. As there are risks in high-octane political statements by gardaí so too are there dangers in political pressure on An Garda Síochána (remember the GUBU years)? The latter should not pass without similar scrutiny and comment. – Yours, etc,