The Morris report shows the Garda needs more significant reforms than those already proposed, writes Mark Kelly
The Morris tribunal found itself "staggered by the amount of indiscipline and insubordination it has found in the Garda force".
The tribunal has spent more than four years meticulously investigating a number of Garda investigations, arrests and detentions in Donegal between October 1996 and May 1999. Among its findings are that Garda members "casually" engaged an undercover civilian agent "without making a single note about the matter and without Garda management authority", and that arrests for placing an explosive device on a telecommunications mast at Ardara were "based upon a false premise", namely the "wrongdoing" of a Garda Detective Sergeant, John White.
The tribunal also found that, in order to secure the arrest of seven members of the Irish Traveller community, the same officer "planted a very old double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun, together with clothes and cartridges, at the Travellers' encampment at Burnfoot".
Mr Justice Morris went out of his way to emphasise that there is a need to do far more than tackle the historical misconduct of the gardaí identified in his reports. He stressed that "it cannot be said that they are unrepresentative or an aberration from the generality. All of them were trained as gardaí and served under a uniform structure of administration and discipline that is standardised throughout the country".
This is not an exercise in maligning rank-and-file gardaí, as has been suggested by some commentators. Indeed, Morris made clear that "the tribunal is convinced that there is a substantial core of gardaí who act within the law and for the good of the people of Ireland". Rather, it's a reflection of the tribunal's view that "proper discipline has been lost" and that "without a management structure being restored to the gardaí that is based on strict compliance with orders, and immediate accountability, the danger is extreme that what the tribunal has reported on in Donegal will be repeated; and that such conduct will multiply if allowed to go unchecked".
Mr Justice Morris has issued this warning twice before. In 2004 and 2005, the tribunal's first and second reports set out a raft of recommendations designed to address "a lack of proper management at senior level, corruption at middle level, and a lack of review throughout the force". Full implementation of these recommendations - which are reiterated in the latest Morris reports - is long overdue.
To his credit, the Minister for Justice has acknowledged that the "gross abuses of powers and fabrication of evidence that are identified in these reports are completely unacceptable and deplorable".
He also highlighted a series of reforms, including a Garda Ombudsman Commission, a Garda Inspectorate, a civilian management advisory group chaired by Senator Maurice Hayes, and new regulations on discipline and promotions.
Moreover, according to the Garda Act 2005, the Garda Síochána should, in future, demonstrate "the highest standards of practice, as measured by reference to the best standards of comparable police services". Taken together, will these measures be sufficient to address the chronic problems that Morris has identified? A number of the Minister's proposed reforms have been in place for some time as regards one particular "comparable police service", the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
However, certain key elements of policing reform in Northern Ireland have not been replicated here.
The Patten Commission report provided a human rights-based blueprint for reform of the PSNI. Although the Garda Síochána has been the subject of a human rights audit, and the Garda Commissioner has published a human rights action plan, no comparable steps have been taken to ensure that human rights principles will underpin Garda reform. Moreover, in Northern Ireland, an independent Policing Board uses a detailed human rights monitoring framework to hold the PSNI to account.
The appointment of Senator Hayes to head a civilian management advisory group is encouraging, given that he was both the author of the report that led to the creation of the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman, and an active member of the Patten Commission.
However, a civilian management advisory group is no substitute for effective, human rights-based scrutiny of Garda performance.
Internal managerial reform is also urgently required. The Morris tribunal has commented that, "Management has to be based on trust. It also has to be based on checking and the reasonable possibility that managers will be strictly called to account". As matters stand, this is not the case. The only means available to Garda managers to deal with poor performance by Garda members are transfer to another Division, suspension or formal disciplinary procedures. There are no other managerial mechanisms (eg, regular, individualised, performance reviews) through which managers can require their subordinates to account for their actions.
Given these latest revelations by the Morris tribunal, the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner - whose voices have been absent from this debate for over a week - must now demonstrate the quality of political and managerial leadership that will be required to render the Garda Síochána a fully accountable and human rights-compliant police service.
Mark Kelly is the director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties