Michael McDowell, characteristically, is convinced that he has transformed An Garda Síochána with the introduction of the Ombudsman Commission, the installation of an inspectorate and some other reforms which, it seems, only he thinks significant, writes Vincent Browne
Certainly the Ombudsman Commission and the inspectorate are important developments - ones instigated, incidentally, not by Michael McDowell, but by his predecessor, John O'Donoghue. But the contention that the force has been transformed is not just another amusing conceit by Michael McDowell but a serious misunderstanding.
We have a police force that is corrupted by a culture of concealment and deception, that is inadequately equipped and trained to deal with contemporary policing problems, that is poorly managed and led, that has lost its way badly. There is an example on this island of how to reform a police force. We should follow that and follow it in the first instance by the appointment of an authoritative commission on policing, that to be followed by the swift implementation of its recommendations.
There are available people with the necessary expertise and experience to sit on such a commission, such as Maurice Hayes, who was a member of the Patten Commission on policing in Northern Ireland, and two retired judges who have had direct exposure to what is going on within the police force here, Freddie Morris and Robert Barr.
The Morris tribunal reports have exposed a dark side to our police force. It has shown police men and women willing to abuse and threaten those they should be protecting, willing to engage in astounding criminality themselves to advance their careers. And a leadership of that force that turns a blind eye to such criminality and abuse.
The Barr Report on the killing of John Carthy at Abbeylara, has exposed a police force of such rank incompetence that is almost frightening. And in the wake of the publication of that report, we see a police force unable to acknowledge the stark reality of its own incompetence and unable to apologise for the killing of a vulnerable citizen who should be alive and well today.
Anyone with experience of the criminal courts will say that the incidence of perjury on the part of Garda witnesses is part and parcel of the system. Gardaí tell lies under oath often without thought nowadays. Not all gardaí do so, but very many do so.
Just look at the incidence of perjury at the tribunals that have had to do with gardaí. The Morris tribunal report records the lies told to it under oath by members of the force.
Maurice Hayes, whose views deserve to be respected on policing, as on many other matters, says surprisingly that the training Garda recruits get in Templemore is impressive. But there is another side to the Templemore experience which surely should be of concern, aside from the actual training.
It seems an esprit de corps evolves there which inculcates in members of the force a conviction that it is them against the world, that at all costs they must stand by each other, that certain malpractices within the force are tolerable.
There is also, one suspects, the transmission within the force of prejudices - prejudices against Travellers, against black people and, possibly, many immigrants.
A transformation of Garda culture would surely see the training of gardaí being conducted, in the main, in third-level institutions around the country, and only the specialised policing training being done in Templemore in sporadic modules. The effect of this would be to dissolve the esprit de corps, to make gardaí much more part of communities generally, to lessen the tolerance of malpractices and concealment.
An influx of recruits from outside the force, into senior positions, would also help. Of special importance would be the appointment of the next commissioner from outside the force, whether from Northern Ireland, or Britain or Canada, with that person being free to bring with him/her others from outside into senior positions.
It is imperative that the culture of the force be altered radically. The prevailing culture was what the first two Morris tribunal reports focused upon and Michael McDowell has ignored that, the most crucial issue.
Another obvious reform would be to make the force accountable to a Garda authority, rather than to the Department of Justice. The culture emanating from that department has also been a problem and anyway it is imperative that the police force be removed from the remit of Ministers for Justice who, from time to time, think they have the capacity to run a police force, because of previous experience as a barrister, solicitor, teacher or just plain politician. There is simply no point in having all these impressive reports piling up if no attention is paid to the central points.
And the central point is there is something rotten at the heart of our police force, we had better address this quickly and the old practices simply have to be scrapped and replaced.