The Garda could face its most comprehensive overhaul for 20 years if recommendations in a confidential report are accepted by the Governmenti conducting criminal investigations. The Strategic Management Initiative (SMI) report, which has been seen by The Irish Times, says gardai should have greater search and detention powers.
Suspects who fail to co-operate with criminal investigations should be guilty of an offence of "comparative gravity", the report says. New laws should allow for suspects in a wide range of cases to be detained for up to four days without charge. The courts should also be told when a defendant has used the "right to silence" and refused to respond to questioning.
The role of all gardai should be reassessed in a "bottom-up" review of the force. Officers' working hours should be reorganised, but gardai should also inform the Commissioner if they have second jobs, it says. He will then decide whether these jobs are appropriate or might interfere with their duties.
The report was submitted to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in June. It was commissioned by the last government after the Veronica Guerin murder.
The report says parts of the law aimed at protecting the innocent "have come to be used in a way that seems designed mainly as a shield for the guilty". It says "valuable rights are being misused", but it also recognises that some of its more severe proposals could have "significant constitutional implications and possibly implications in terms of compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights".
During its discussions of this part of the report, a review group member protested that the legal reforms proposed were "draconian".
Senior gardai have been pressing for implementation of the report and hope the reforms it demands can get under way before Christmas. Official sources have indicated that the Taoiseach plans to bring the report to Cabinet in coming weeks.
The report states that while the Garda has a good record in solving crimes compared to police in other countries, the diversion of resources to combat terrorism has had "a consequential negative impact on the public perception of the quality of the policing service being provided".
The Garda should publicly state its aims so the community will know what to expect of it, it says. "A qualitative improvement in service delivery must be accompanied by a similar improvement in public perception". There should also be an annual policing plan, agreed with the Commissioner, setting performance targets.
The report recommends making the Commissioner accountable to the Dail for the way the force spends its money, but that improved mechanisms for reviewing Garda pay should be controlled by the Department of Finance.
The report also says a more efficient way must be found to deal with gardai seeking promotions. More than £600,000 was spent on the promotion competitions in one year.
Communications with other parts of the criminal justice system should be improved, with a computer system holding a "central database of criminals", the report says.
Station opening hours must be reviewed, and working hours changed, because the current practices result in "the availability of an excessive number of gardai on duty at times of least activity", the report says.
But the review group stopped short of accepting some of the proposals by management consultants hired to advise it. It said more studies were needed on proposed initiatives such as "targeting" of major criminals and deployment of extra resources against "minor crime".
The Government recognises that gardai would be unlikely to accept some of the changes in working practices proposed without a pay review. The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, has already signalled to the force's representative associations that the Government is prepared to consider a pay increase.
The review group was chaired by the industrialist Mr Tony Barry, CRH chairman. The other members were: Mr Pat Byrne, Garda Commissioner; Mr Tim Dalton, Secretary of the Department of Justice; Mr Kevin Duffy of ICTU; Mr Barry Galvin of the Criminal Assets Bureau; Mr Jim McCaffrey of the Department of Finance; Mr John Timoney, former deputy head of the New York police; and Ms Catherine Treacy of the Land Registry.
See also page 6