The proposed Garda Inspectorate, announced by the Minister for Justice here yesterday, is likely to be headed by a judge or former judge. They may recruit former garda∅ or investigators from outside police forces to investigate serious incidents involving the Garda.
The legislation to set up the independent inspectorate is not likely to be in place until next year, as the Department of Justice's legal department is devoting almost its entire resources to the establishment of post-September 11th anti-terrorism legislation in line with the EU.
The inspectorate may be in place within two years and will replace the Garda Complaints Board, which is run by the Department of Justice and was set up in 1986. The Complaints Board was unable to investigate serious incidents.
Inquiries into shootings and other serious incidents involving garda∅ have been investigated internally, often with the reports kept secret. This happened in the case of the wrongful charging of the Dublin man, Mr Dean Lyons, with the murders of the two women, Ms Sylvia Shields and Ms Mary Callinan, at Grangegorman in 1997.
The internal Garda report into the shooting dead of Mr John Carthy, at his home in Abbeylara, Co Longford in May 1999 was published at the behest of the Minister. That report exonerated the garda∅ of any wrongdoing and devoted 18 pages to detailing Mr Carthy's psychiatric, family and social background. This led to the establishment of the Dβil committee of inquiry which is still under legal challenge by the Garda representative bodies.
Yesterday, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said the establishment of an independent inspectorate was necessary for "securing public confidence".
He said: "The powers of the inspectorate will be very extensive and will enable it to obtain access to relevant material and to have discussions with appropriate parties in conducting its reviews. Moreover, the inspectorate will be in a position to conduct research into relevant matters and to engage specialist expertise.
This could be done, for example, through the use of outside resources which could, as necessary, be sought from outside the jurisdiction." Mr O'Donoghue said the inspectorate would produce an annual report for Government which would be published.
It would be open to the inspectorate to undertake an inspection on its own initiative or at the request of the Minister for Justice or the Garda Commissioner. To ensure transparency, the results of reviews carried out by the inspectorate would be published unless this would not be appropriate for security or other important reasons.
"One of the requirements for securing public confidence in a police force is to ensure that, where a member of the public believes they have a legitimate ground for complaining about the behaviour of a police officer, there is available a procedure which will enable their complaints to be properly and full investigated in as open and transparent a way as possible. This applies fully to the Garda S∅ochβna which also has a vital interest in having this type of procedure available.
"One of the most significant aspects of the new arrangements for handling complaints will be the fact that the inspectorate will undertake that function completely independently of any other body, including the Garda S∅ochβna.
"In particular, the inspectorate will conduct investigations into complaints itself and, for that purpose, will use its own personnel, resources and powers. Moreover, the inspectorate will be fully independent in all aspects of its operations and it will have no link with the Garda force. The staff of the inspectorate will also be appointed specifically by the new body and will be directly responsible to it."
The head of the inspectorate will be appointed by Government and ratified by the Oireachtas.