Party expresses no confidence in Garda Commissioner and senior management
Full implementation the Olson report ‘Changing Policing in Ireland’ must be prioritised
Commenting on the ongoing scandal in An Garda Síochána, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan TD said today: “We have no confidence in the way Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan and her senior management team have addressed the false reporting of breath test statistics.
“The Commissioner has breached the Garda’s own new code of ethics by not presenting information on this issue in an open and transparent manner. At the last meeting of the Policing Authority on the 23rd of February the question regarding false reporting of statistics was raised. This clearly available on YouTube.
“Commissioner O’Sullivan diverted the question to a junior officer and the extent of the problem was not revealed. The Chair of the Policing Authority Josephine Feehily said at the time that they were disappointed the relevant information had not earlier been raised by the Garda at a subcommittee meeting of the Authority when the Garda should have done so. She raised her concern about ‘behaviour that might cause people to feel it was appropriate to inflate the data.’
“Other parties are calling for new commission on Garda reform but we believe the ‘Changing Policing in Ireland’ report presented by Chief Inspector Robert Olson in November 2015 highlighted a lot of the cultural and management changes that need to take place.
“The way the Commissioner and her senior officers have addressed this latest scandal indicates that they are not able to implement the reforms we already know we need. That is why we believe she should consider her position.”
