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TIMING IS EVERYTHING in life, and this week we have become obsessed with matters of time. A cynic might view it as interesting timing that a scandal involving the Gardai with potentially wide-ranging legal ramifications hits the airwaves just as a crescendo is rising on various previously simmering issues.
The timing of the Garda recording scandal is fascinating. It is intertwined in a long-running series of events that have involved whistleblowers, penalty points, the handling of criminal cases and the relationship between the force and its watchdog.
It’s difficult not to imagine that An Garda Síochána is at an inflection point in its history. The integrity of the leadership of the force has been compromised at a time of widely-reported discontent from within the ranks. Public confidence is being tested. Clearly, things need to change in the way the force operates both for its own benefit and for the benefit of those who are asked to trust it unconditionally.
So much of what ails the Gardai seems to come back to attitude more so than anything else. As police force scandals go, our problems are fairly minor insofar as major corruption of members is not on the table. The permanent government of those who serve the state regardless of politics seem to have ambled themselves into a series of operationally unnecessary troubles. They have done so because they seem to feel that they can act with impunity and strong arm aside anyone who would suggest otherwise.
It is right and proper that any organisation have robust mechanisms to allow whistleblowers to highlight potential wrongdoing. It is the sign of a healthy organisation to accept and work with such people, even if one doubts the veracity of their statements. It is the sign of a weak organisation, or one not fit for purpose, if it jealously guards the right to investigate itself and write its own performance review.
By insisting that any scandal be dealt with in a manner that is clear to any outsider to be designed to whitewash, the Gardai and the Department of Justice created for themselves a rolling thunder of trouble that was never going to end any way other than in resignations and ignominy for otherwise good careers.
The most interesting thing about most of the scandals that have afflicted the Gardai in recent times is just how pointless most of them are. The rigmarole has been caused more by the reaction to the hint of even minor wrongdoing than the original sin.
Wiping penalty points is something that should be available to Gardai on discretion. However, there should be strict procedures and reviews in place to manage the process. Any old idiot could have told you that when the system for points and PULSE came together. Even had that original sin not been avoided, when it all came to light the Gardai could have allowed an independent investigation that didn’t immediately scream of internal whitewash, taken their lumps and changed their procedures. This being Ireland, let’s face it, nobody would have lost their jobs over it.
Attacking whistleblowers and throwing around words like ‘disgusting’ when discussing them – whatever the retrofitted PR explanation for what you really actually meant – is only going to work if the whistleblowers are genuinely malicious or stupid. If they’re good men acting honestly, then you will come off as the bad guy before too long.
Fighting your official watchdog, the Garda Ombudsman, and cooperating like a teenager being taken on a caravan holiday is never going to make you look good. Whatever catharsis there is in flipping the bird at your parents, anyone watching will just think you’re a bit of a prissy prig really.
In constantly battling anyone who would dare criticise them, the leadership of the Gardai and their backers in the Department of Justice have simply managed to make themselves look shifty in the eyes of many.
This is the arrogant nature of permanent government. It gets too used to running the show and always being right. The permanent branches of government dislike things such as freedom of information and accountability, and they are big fans of self-managed discipline and silence. They are the type of people who respond “Yes” to the question “Do you know what time it is?”
Poor old Alan Shatter learned just how selective his officials can be when he, the Minister for Justice, became next to the last person in government to find out that the Gardai have been recording telephone calls in and out of police stations for nigh on 30 years. His officials sat on a letter from the Garda Commissioner – that specifically requested he be told about the matter – for a fortnight.
It’s amazing in the first place that this practise has continued beyond its inception during the exceptional times of The Troubles. Anyone told of this practise can immediately grasp the implications, with any legal case that involved an individual using a telephone in a Garda station potentially being open to review.
I would personally sincerely doubt that the Gardai may have used privileged information, such as conversations between a solicitor and his or her client, that was garnered without their knowledge or any sort of warrant or other normal legal protection. But who knows for sure?
Someone had to set up, maintain and authorise this programme over a 30-year period. According to the various Ministers for Justice contacted by this publication who served over that time, including the serving Minister for Finance, it wasn’t any of them.
That the permanent government can pull this off speaks volumes to either, or both, the impotence of political leaders and their wilful blindness to the backwards things that government administration is capable of.
We might think about ways to break open the permanent and conservative structures of government, such as breathing in fresh air with political appointments to key administrative roles; such as we see in the US. It’s not a perfect system either. But a totally closed shop seems a bad idea.
Aaron McKenna is a businessman and a columnist for TheJournal.ie. He is also involved in activism in his local area. You can find out more about him at aaronmckenna.com or follow him on Twitter @aaronmckenna. To read more columns by Aaron click here.
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Asked what Mr Callinan had done wrong, given he himself informed the attorney general about the tapes last November and sent a letter to Mr Purcell two weeks previously, the Taoiseach had this to say: “The point was you were going to have a debate in the Dáil on the Thursday, originally on the inspectorate report and the issues about that from the opposition point of view were the former commissioner’s comment and the minister for justice’s comment, but in the knowledge that the 37 recommendations have already been accepted in full and will be implemented in full, and what was involved here was that I felt that it was important to do this properly and that I should convey, or have conveyed, to the commissioner my anxiety and concern at the implications of what the attorney general had informed me and so that the commissioner would be aware of that.”
Who ever best translates this babble gets two weeks in castlebar having the Craig with Enda
Who’s the ‘Craig’ – does he know that Enda can have him for two weeks? Did he consent to this? Was he trafficked here? Where’s Ruhama??
Good one Dara – you turned a typo into a whole (hole) new angle for our ENDA
Interesting. This is the first article I’ve seen laying the blame for all of this with civil servants and calling for more political appointments. But do you really believe that civil servants sat on the commissioner’s letter to Shatter for 15 days? and while the commisser met the minister during that time he never once asked “so what did you think of my letter marked urgent?”?
Basing your article on the incredible claims on Alan and Enda immediately throws your article into the realms of fiction.
The author lumps the entire civil service together. In reality we have 15 civil services each with its own ethos and attitudes. Department of Justice definitely has an attitude towards the outside world that needs to be changed. Think about where we have problems.. prisons, asylum seekers, guards, and think who is responsible. Think who knows best in Ireland and better than the rest of the world. Think about every Justice minister going back years.. sure Shatter is arrogant but what about McDowell, Burke, O’Donoghue. All arrogant pericks. Maybe it was the advice they got from their civil service masters. Department if Justice needs to be cleaned out thoroughly. And that permanent quasi civil servant and party hack who pulls Edna’s strings needs to be reined in too.
You doubt that Gardai would have used privileged information? You’re either naive or telling porkies. Have you considered a career in the Gardai?
Excellent article.
Though our political leaders continue to disingenuously talk about transparency and accountability, their actions make clear that they are striving for greater secrecy and even less accountability.
The continued resistance to calls for greater transparency can only mean that there are many more skeletons in the cupboard.
“The CIA, the FBI, and the London Metropolitan Police are all subject to Freedom of Information. What special secrets do the Gardai have that these organisations do not have? Even the Police Service of Northern Ireland publishes a helpful log of what it has disclosed. But the Minister is wary of trespassing on the territory of the Garda Síochána.” – (FOIreland Weblog)
http://ht.ly/qP3VE
Allowing a discretionary system of expunging or removing penalty points is wrong. It usurps the role of the judiciary and it is a facility which will always be open to abuse. If you wish to resist imposition of pertly points do so in open court, openly, honestly and transparently.
District Justices are sympathetic to a reasonable explanation.
Behind closed doors removal of points of legitimately and legally imposed points allows for those with pull to escape.
Abolish the facility for expunging of points is the right way forward.
As for the tapes, it is understandable why the right to silence exists although it has been limited.
I do not trust An Garda Siochana. There have been too many scandals. What else has been concealed? Obey the law, be civil with an Garda Siochana but know that they are not servants of the public.
Remember the Garda heavy gang in the 80′s, legalised thugs
It is right that you remind us of this . Garda misconduct is not a new thing. Look at the findings in the Morris and Barron Tribunals.
We need an independent Garda Authority with strong disciplinary powers.
Political interference in An Garda Siochana must stop.
Some want them back….such is the joy of a democracy
The only people that had a problem with them were people that were thugs anyway
Why so sure that no one listened to the confidential information though?
The Gardai do have a reputation. No denying. And there is corruption and wrong doing going on. But while the powers that be ignore it or try to discredited the whistle blowers there will never be change. It is clear that there is no will to change. Nothing from the DOJ, the minister or the Garda Siochana. The way they have treated has ensured no other whistle blowers will come forward.
There are a lot of questions that have yet to be asked and answered in my opinion.
When did the minister really find out about the tapings? Who gave the directive to stop the recordings last November? Did it come from the minister? Or the department? Or from Callinan? Why didn’t the minister know about it then? Did the attorney general bring it to the ministers attention?
I believe Shatter is incompetent and the attorney general, department of justice, gsoc and Callinan are either influenced by him or are protecting him. Which is it and why?
We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
Fantastic writing. Great article. Lisa and Aaron are the only two writers on here who can actually use English as it should be used. I doff my cap. A very sensitive and well-crafted piece.
Well written and well crafted, no doubt, but if the civil servants are making the decisions and pulling the political strings, then why not just dispense with the government and save ourselves a fortune in election expenses, salaries and foreign junkets. Anyone who believes that Alan Shatter didn’t know of those recordings before last Sunday is naive to the point of stupidity. Furthermore, you cannot ‘unhear’ something, once you’ve heard it, it cannot be unheard and claiming that the gardai would never use such information is definitely stretching the imagination into fantasy land!
Where can u buy a lie detector machine
According to a lot of canvassers in shatters constituency they are receiving a lot of flak about shatter, I said it before and I’ll say it again if shatters stays he’ll destroy the government , that’s if they are not finished already
“His officials sat on a letter from the Garda Commissioner – that specifically requested he be told about the matter – for a fortnight.”
Good ol’ aaron. Never missing an opportunity to have a pop at the public service.
There is not a chance that a letter couriered to the minister of justices office from the Garda commissioner in a time of crisis for his ministry was sat on for a fortnight. It simply would not happen.
Seriously thejournal, we can guess why aaron is allowed to submit his weekly tripe, but you really need to ask is it worth it. The article is laughable.
Shatter is blaming them and no one from the department is denying it.
“Shatter is blaming them and no one from the department is denying it.”
Shatter is blaming everybody but shatter, as he has every single scandal. How many people have been thrown under the bus now?
And ‘no one from his department is denying it’ is the same as saying ‘nobody is whistleblowing on shatter’.
I wonder why that is. If they ‘cross shatter’ they would be ‘finished’, to quote the confidential recipient who was proven right.
You criticise the article because it is critical of civil servants. I disagree. As a public servant I agree that we must accept criticism as the public’s views and society as a whole has changed hugely over the last 10 years. Ignoring the criticism will just increase the disconnect between the public service and the public.
No, I’m criticising the author s for using shatters completely implausable scenario as if were gospel to do his usual hatchet job on public servants.
I have no problem with people being critical of public servants for stuff they’ve actually done wrong, not when they’re being scapegoated to save a politicians hide.
A really poor article. Basic facts are incorrect!
It is an opinion piece, not journalism.
I think this is a very good article. All this shite would have been avoided if the powers that be had said Ok, we have a problem but we are fixing it.
I have not heard any reporter ask Edna why he sent the man to the Chief. Why was the Chief not summoned to the presence. Why didn’t Enda send an email or a text, or even a guarded phone call to come in. The AG met Edna and probably the man was there on Sunday. It beggars belief that the Chief and the Minister couldn’t be called in. Was the messenger sent for maximum publicity. Is it just as laid out in the above article. A classic from the book of cock ups or a very clever decoy move.
What is this? Amateur hour ? Are these articles being edited at all? “Disguising” ?
Agreed. Not even proof read.
Simple management problems that were badly managed or ignored have blown up in the face of the Gardai and the Dept of Justice. They are compouunded by political point scoring that has put the resolution of them beyond normal reform. It’s too late to say that it can be fixed internally, precisely because people are losing trust in the Gardai. And the net resumt will be more oversight. Not a bad thing, but this has backfired badly on a culture that will be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
I think the penalty point fiasco/ the bugging of the Garda siochana ombudsman commissions office and now Gardagate are all carefully government released leaks to take the nations attention off the whole rotten Anglo Irish banking trial. Just my two cents.
Its good to read an article every now and then that deals with basics,most of us can understand that behind the small group of people that were to elected to govern the country on behalf of the citizens, behind the scenes,there are army’s of faceless people we call the permenent government, whose job it is to carry on steering the ship of state regardless of who is in power, or the day to day political shenanagans of politicians,where the culture is keep your head down and your mouth shut and you will do just fine,it comes as little surprise to learn just who holds the real power in the country, and just why those people have a very high regard of themselves,the ex Garda commisioner was just one of many.
I think we need to look at this objectively. Callinan’s whistleblower comments should not have been made, and he should have withdrawn them. – Not a sacking offense. The recording of the phone calls needs more analysis as in what calls were recorded, was client/attorney privilege breached etc. This is much more important. Callinan was a Garda for 41 years and by all accounts he had an excellent record in working for this country. We should bear that in mind when we comment on these matters. Certain things need to change. Perhaps an outside Commissioner is required. Moral within the Garda is pretty low and this comes down to management. Many senior Garda see their role as money savers and are not capable of utilising their resources while at the same time providing a good service and ensuring that moral is maintained. Too many Gardai are sitting behind desks. You do not need a garda to answer a 999 call or to work as a clerk etc. Certain key roles such as intelligence etc require Gardai but not enough civilians are recruited. It takes time and money to train Gardai…put them in the front line and not in the back office. This is not rocket science and should be well within the capability of the new Commissioner
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