No political will evident to reform Garda

WELL, that’s sorted then. Everything has changed. The publication of the Guerin report into allegations made by Sergeant Maurice McCabe has ushered in a new era. From here on, An Garda Siochána will be properly accountable. Whistleblowers will be listened to.

A review of the workings of the Department of Justice will highlight its failings in ignoring the cries of Sergeant McCabe. The new Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, is pushing a broom through her portfolio, sweeping out the dirt, letting in the light. That bygone age of Shatter and Callinan is fading from memory. Move along, it’s all sorted. Nothing more to see here.

By their actions shall we know them. The first move in a new dispensation is to recognise the past, and where it went wrong. Just over a week out from the publication of Guerin, and it seems that that cathartic imperative has been completely ignored.

Take the Taoiseach’s so-called apology to McCabe in the Dáil last week. The garda sergeant and his family had endured six years of hell trying to drag the truth out into the open. The citizenry at large believe he has done a considerable service to the State. And how does the country’s leader acknowledge this service?

“I’ve already spoken of the importance and the right of people to bring issues to public notice that should be brought to public notice. So in that regard, I have no problem apologising to Sergeant McCabe for the issues that he raised and for the fact that his raising these matters wasn’t dealt with more speedily.”

That was it. Mealy-mouthed (“no problem apologising”); qualified (“the right of people to bring issues to public notice”); practically insulting (“wasn’t dealt with more speedily”).

If that’s the attitude at the top of government, what real hope is there that change can be effected? Apart from exhibiting common decency to properly acknowledge service rendered, Kenny might have reflected on his own role in McCabe’s nightmare.

Throughout 2012 and into 2013, McCabe contacted the Taoiseach directly in desperation. His every effort to have malpractice exposed was being stymied. Surely the elected leader of the country would intervene and bring an end to the madness?

On July 23, 2012, he wrote to Kenny.

“I made a complaint to Minister Shatter through the Confidential Recipient in relation to corruption. Minister Shatter has been slow to act on this complaint and the Confidential Recipient is frustrated by the minister’s inaction and as a result is not replying to correspondence. Is it possible for you or your official to assist me? All I am asking is that the minister or his officials meet with me and my legal team so that we can hand over the evidence of corruption, which in fact is also on the investigation files. I request that this email remain very private and confidential so that I will not be subjected to more victimisation. I can forward you a copy of the complaint should you wish to look at it to familiarise yourself.”

He received an anodyne reply. On October 22, 2012, McCabe wrote again to the Taoiseach’s office: “In July 2012, I reported to An Taoiseach’s office matters of a criminal nature, and matters of major public concern and outcry if they were to become known.”

He went on to outline how he had repeatedly tried to have the issues addressed: “Again I contacted the Taoiseach’s office wanting to know the up-to-date position and I received an email back stalling me. This happened again and again and again to the point that I received an email stating again that Minister Shatter would contact me. Never happened. I responded stating Minister Shatter has no role seeing he deemed my allegations were without evidence.”

Sean Guerin looked at the same evidence and it took him just nine weeks to find wholesale malpractice.

This wasn’t some fruitcake or malcontent writing to Kenny. A cursory inquiry — even to the likes of Pat Rabbitte or Charlie Flanagan who had met McCabe — would have established that he was a man to whom one should listen. The Taoiseach did nothing of the sort.

And at the end of it all, after the ugly truths were laid bare by Guerin, Kenny wasn’t even man enough to issue a proper apology. He should have done so on behalf of the State, but equally he should have done so for his own personal failings in the matter.

Then there’s the new minister — Kenny’s close confidante — who was appointed to clean up Shatter’s mess. On her first full day in office, Frances Fitzgerald met with the Interim Garda Commissioner, Nóirín O’Sullivan. The following day Guerin was published, and by that evening, McCabe had been informed that his access to the Pulse computer system was being restored. He had been denied access since December 2012.

What changed? On publication of the Guerin Report, did Commissioner O’Sullivan suddenly realise that McCabe had been grievously wronged and he and the force would be better served if he was freed to do his job properly?

Or was she directed by the new minister to clear up this Pulse business rapido, because the minister and her boss didn’t want to be putting up with reporters banging on about it at every pause in the hustings?

Make no mistake. The restoration of McCabe’s access to Pulse was rooted in political considerations, and was not at all motivated by an acceptance that he had been done a grievous wrong.

On Thursday, Fitzgerald issued a long speech to the House on how she will operate her new broom. Nowhere therein was there acknowledgment of the real failings of this whole affair. Nor was there any acceptance that a lowly sergeant had exposed the failings right up through each level of the tower of power, all the way to the top.

One might have hoped that she would exhibit grace where Kenny had failed to do so, but unfortunately she is cut from the same cloth as her leader.

The reality is that the turbulent cop is not viewed in the upper echelons of power as somebody who has rendered the State a service. He is regarded as an irritant, one who has cost the Government political capital, and cost poor Alan Shatter his job. He created a headache for Kenny, in effectively forcing the Taoiseach to remove the Garda commissioner — the exact circumstances of which are still shrouded in mystery.

Irrespective of what service such a person might render the State, he will invariably be resented rather than lauded in the upper echelons. That Kenny and those around him are incapable of rising above such petty concerns speaks volumes.

There will be new laws and powers that will go some way towards addressing the shortcomings of the act that emerged post the Morris Tribunal. However, a dearth of political will to reform An Garda Siochána extends back much further than Morris or the corruption in Donegal that it investigated. As of now, all the signs are that once the furore dies down, the political urgency to drive change will disappear into the ether.

By Michael Clifford