The Government and the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell will be reassured by the findings of the latest Irish Times/TNS mrbi opinion poll which show that almost half of the electorate favours the creation of a Garda Síochána reserve, with fewer than one-in-three being opposed. At a time when the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) and the Garda Representative Association (GRA) are threatening not to co-operate with the project, public support for the Government's position and the terms of the Garda Síochána Act will serve to encourage the Minister while acting as a cold rebuff to rebellious members of the force.
The gloves have come off between the Government and the representative associations as Mr McDowell demanded discipline and obedience to lawful authority and announced that new structures and disciplinary procedures would be put in place before the summer. Justification for this initiative has been grounded in reports from the Morris tribunal, which is inquiring into Garda corruption in Co Donegal. Mr Justice Morris was "staggered" by the level of indiscipline and insubordination uncovered. He urged the early introduction of a new disciplinary code that would be effective and swift. Some Garda members, he suggested, were abusing their positions and frustrating disciplinary procedures through legal challenges. New recruits were being brought into an undisciplined culture.
Mr Justice Morris has stated publicly what every politician has been aware of for years. Some members of the Garda Síochána are out of control. A culture has emerged where support for colleagues is regarded as more important than the impartial and rigorous enforcement of the law. Effective discipline has broken down.
An incipient political challenge to the authority of the Garda Commissioner, the Government and the Oireachtas may have encouraged the Minister's reaction. Certainly, the alacrity of his response to a warning by Mr Justice Morris that Garda insubordination on a mass scale would be a disaster for the force suggested an anxiety to confront the disciplinary and reserve issues head on.
A policy of non co-operation by the GRA and the AGSI towards a reserve cannot be allowed. That policy is just one symptom of a deeper malaise. Insubordination and indiscipline runs deep. The erosion of authority and an inability to quickly and effectively punish those gardaí guilty of criminality has reached dangerous levels. Committed and law-abiding gardaí must be protected under a new disciplinary code. Equally, corrupt members must be weeded out. The sooner this happens, the better.