The Garda authorities took no action in more than half of cases of alleged minor breaches of discipline by members referred to the Garda Commissioner last year, a report said today.
In its annual report for 2006, the Garda Complaints Board said it had referred 63 complaints by members of the public involving an alleged minor breach of discipline to the Commissioner.
Midway through the year, it emerged that in "well over half" of these cases no further action was taken.
The board said it could "hardly be said that effectively overruling the board's decision, in such a high percentage of case, was accidental."
"It is just impossible to imagine that the board was wrong in all of the casees in which no further action was taken," chairman of the complaints body Gordon Holmes said.
The Garda Press Office said Commissioner Noel Conroy would not be responding to the criticisms.
The number of complaints made by members of the public against members of the Garda rose 15 per cent last year to 1,350, but just 814 (60 per cent) of them were admissible. Half of all complaints (650) were made in person at Garda stations.
Complaints related to alleged abuse of authority (34 per cent), discourtesy (32 per cent) and neglect of duty (25 per cent).
A total of 473 complaints were deemed inadmissible by the chief executive of the board, 181 were deemed inadmissible by the board itself and 234 complaints were withdrawn.
Just 21 complaints were resolved informally compared to 50 in 2005. A total of 25 cases deemed to be serious breaches of discipline were referred by the board to the Complaints Tribunal.
While the complaints body said the number of people who use the system to bring pressure on members of the Garda to drop charges against them was "reprehensible". But it also noted that there was still "limited success" in resolving complaints informally where gardaí refused to apologise when they were in the wrong.
Garda Complaints Board chairman Gordon Holmes said: "I have emphasised in the past and continue to emphasise the total inability of the Gardaí, where a genuine bona fide mistake has been made, to offer apologies for that mistake."
He said he had highlighted in previous years examples which had resulted in the State being sued and a "great deal of money wasted" because of that.
He highlighted a case where gardaí searching for drugs broke the door down at the home of a perfectly innocent couple. They had still not apologised or paid for the damage a year later.
The complaints board chairman said this was the sort of matter that should have been dealt with by an immediate apology from the proper source but it was not.
Mr Holmes said there had been limited success with attempts at the informal resolution of complaints because Garda members "apparently on advice or instruction from their representative bodies" in the main refused to accept it.
Mr Holmes said, howeer, the gardaí need and require public support and they have it "in large measure because of the great work they do". "Individual incidents should never blur this."
"When [gardaí] act outside the bounds they don't seem to be capable of apologising or going to the individual and saying the organisation is wrong here, we made a mistake," said the board's chief executive Anthony Duggan.
Mr Duggan said there was a culture and attitude within the Garda seemingly oblivious to legitimate criticism that had to be rooted out.
"We're not saying everyone in gardai is wrong," he stressed.
"Mistakes are made in any organisation. If you take any civil service organisation, they are open to be complained about but they don't seem to take the same attitude gardaí take."
The board recommended that licensing laws be reviewed because of the large number of cases which occur either outside licensed premises or at fast food restaurants at closing time.
Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan, who received the report from the board chairman in Dublin, said he intended to bring proposals to Cabinet in the autumn to set up a new commission to examine the licensing laws, which would take in all aspects of the current system. Mr Lenihan refused to be drawn on whether that body might examine changing off-licence opening hours, saying it would be a matter for the commission.
Today's report marks the last full year of operations by the Garda Complaints Board. Since May 9 th, all new complaints are dealt with by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.
Additional reporting: PA