Garda management strongly criticised by Policing Authority

The Policing Authority, the new body set up to oversee the Garda Síochána's policing functions, has issued a series of stinging criticisms of the management of gardaí following a meeting with the Garda Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan on Thursday to discuss the report of the O'Higgins inquiry.

In a statement issued last night, the authority said it would hold two further meetings with the Commissioner in public in the coming weeks to discuss the policing failures identified in the inquiry report, and the Garda management’s response to them.

In a statement after the meeting, the Policing Authority chairwoman, Josephine Feehily said: “The recurring deficiencies in policing performance evidenced in the O’Higgins final report are deeply troubling.”

The authority expressed “serious concern at the impact on victims and at the systemic performance and management failures”.

It also said it was dismayed that the same performance failures as identified in previous reports into the Garda had reoccurred.

‘Deep unease’

The authority said it felt “deep unease at the organisation and management culture including the environment for speaking out, as evident in the report”.

It also identified the need for "an urgent response by the Garda Síochána to the findings and recommendations".

Meanwhile, fresh allegations of Garda malpractice, this time in Co Leitrim, were raised on Thursday in the Dáil during a debate on the O’Higgins inquiry into policing in Cavan-Monaghan.

With some TDs suggesting the malpractice identified by the inquiry was unlikely to be confined to Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny put on the record of the Dáil several incidents he said gardaí in Leitrim had brought to his attention.

He said they had been referred to the Department of Justice and to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, but that satisfactory investigations had not occurred. He called for the establishment of another commission of inquiry to investigate them.

Mr Kenny related several incidents which he said had been brought to him by whistleblowers still serving as gardaí and also by former gardaí. Several of the complaints related to the misuse of Garda informants.

Alleged incidents

Among alleged incidents Mr Kenny related to the Dáil were:

*A Garda informant was allegedly instructed by his handlers to offer a bribe to an NCT tester. Having accepted the bribe, the employee was charged and convicted.

*Failure to investigate properly the disappearance of a man who was last seen in the company of a Garda informant.

*Failure to investigate the discovery of a pipe bomb.

*Failure to investigate information that a man associated with a criminal gang was in possession of a gun.

Mr Kenny also alleged a man who claimed to be a Garda informant told him in 2014 that he had been instructed by named gardaí to carry out a robbery at his, Mr Kenny’s, house. His house was subsequently burgled in March 2007.

Meanwhile, some TDs and Ministers are uneasy about a raft of senior Garda promotions announced in recent days.

The Government approved the appointment of four Assistant Commissioners - the third highest rank in the Garda - at its meeting on Tuesday.

In addition, it is expected that up to 20 further senior appointments, many to the rank of chief superintendent, are in the process of being made and will be announced shortly.

Under new legislation, the Policing Authority is due to take over responsibility for senior Garda appointments.

The Department of Justice has said it hopes to have the necessary regulations to allow this change in July.

A Government spokesman said many of the appointment have been outstanding for many months.

The current wave of gun murders underlined the need for leadership in the Garda, he said.