Posted by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris facing internal revolt over plans which will see top officers go
The Irish Mirror has learned that redundancy packages were approved for a number of Assistant Commissioners, Chief Superintendents and Superintendents
- 17:37, 17 JUL 2019
- Updated19:42, 17 JUL 2019
It’s understood that as well as pension entitlements and other benefits, six months wages for each rank will also be offered.
The move could cause serious unrest within the force with Brexit looming in particular, according to one source.
The source said: “This is just madness. Civilianisation is all well and good but letting go of high ranking officers who have 30 plus years’ experience when Brexit is looming and there is massive uncertainty regarding security on the border, it’s just wrong.
“Why are we letting such good officers go when we need them now more than ever?
“He’s letting go of Assistant Commissioners, Chief Superintendents and Superintendents, all of whom have a wealth of knowledge and know how the system operates.
“It’s experience that can’t be replaced and is vital in the months ahead in particular.
“The redundancies are expected to include six months’ full rank pay as an incentive.”
It’s believed that the number of Assistant Commissioners will be reduced from 12 to four and that the number of Chief Superintendents will drop from 28 to 19.
Last month it emerged that 111 Garda members had been moved back to front line policing from desk jobs since the start of the year under the civilianisation process with a total of 500 posts earmarked for the whole of 2019.
It also comes just a few months after concerns were raised by rank-and-file gardai over plans to replace Garda crime scene examiners with civilians.
It is part of plans to civilianise 1,500 Garda jobs by 2021 and includes all scenes-of-crime examiners being replaced by civilians and returned to front line duties.
Redundancies are not to take place before the end of the year according to Garda spokesman.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, a Garda spokesman said in response to the number of high ranking positions being reduced: “Under A Policing Service for the Future, which is the implementation plan based on recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing, An Garda Siochana is to introduce a new Operating Model before the end of the year.
“An Garda Siochana has previously publically stated that under its revised Operating Model the number of Garda Regions will be reduced from six to four and the number of Divisions will be reduced. No decision has been made yet on the final number of Divisions.
“This new model will mean that Divisions will be better positioned in terms of personnel numbers and specialist skills to deliver a service suited to local needs.”
And regarding a redundancy package being offered to those in senior positions including Assistant Commissioners and Chief Superintendents, the spokesman added: “As recommended by the Commission on the Future of Policing, a voluntary severance package for senior managers (Superintendent and above and Executive Directors) has been well advanced.
“Garda management will now engage with relevant staff associations.
“As the severance package will require regulation change, which will take a number of months, no senior managers will leave under the programme in 2019.
“The number and rank/grade of senior managers who will be allowed avail of the severance package will be at the discretion of the Commissioner based on operational requirements.
“The Commission on the Future of Policing said that such a one-off targeted severance option should be available “as it is to be expected and entirely understandable that not all personnel will want to go through the kind of transform we envisage.”
Garda Band musician ‘punches’ band-mate for pulling leg hair before BBC show
The band was preparing to play with the PSNI Pipes and Drums Band for the first time ever on television
Fred interrupts: It is alleged that Commissioner Harris has completely transformed his office and he has put up paintings representing his own little bit of culture which he is entitled to do, may it be Maggie or King Billy! Let’s face it Leo has half the Cabinet wearing pink socks which he is entitled to do. I hope that the senior Gardai who walk into the Commissioner’s office, Salute King Billy and Maggie, this could go a long way to help the Brexit and the Border for that matter.
Background: In 1997, there were five candidates: Mary McAleese, Mary Banotti, Adi Roche, Dana and Derek Nally. The latter, who ran as an independent, was a former garda who had taken to the justice minister in the 1970s his concerns about the brutality of the so-called “heavy gang” in the force. Two decades on, the repercussions were still felt.
* The headline: Nally wants ‘possible assassins’ to identify themselves.
* The story: Presidential candidate Derek Nally described as scandalous and sad an allegation by a group of former gardaí that there were people who would be willing to put a bullet in his head.
He called on those gardaí to come out publicly and make the allegations against him.
“I want to be able to identify the people who are making the threats and identify my possible assassins,” he said in Limerick.
Mr Nally was speaking on allegations made on RTÉ’s Primetime and a suggestion that a group of ex-gardaí might come out against him, as a group had done to Adi Roche.
“I am not afraid of any physical violence that could be perpetrated against me,” he said.
Mr Nally believed he was being subjected to threats because of speaking out in the 1970s against some of the force.
“I spoke about a small handful of unrepresentative gardaí who in my view were bringing the force into serious disrepute,” he said.
There were allegations coming into the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors when he was general secretary that gardaí were ill-treating prisoners.
“I never saw any of this, but it was a very strong view in the Garda force at the time and I brought the matter to the attention of then Minister for Justice, Paddy Cooney.
“I think it is scandalous and sad that a group of people who were supposed to be the protectors of the criminal justice system, to be protectors of law and order and protections [sic] of the rule of law, would come and say these kind of things.”
Mr Nally said he was sure the former gardaí were not speaking about his support for Sergeant Tom Tully of Boyle, Co Roscommon, when he opposed the Garda authorities and the then minister for justice in their attempts to transfer him.
“I got 100% support for my stand on that.”
Meanwhile, the Garda Representative Association and Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said they knew nothing of plans by members or former members to make allegations against Mr Nally.
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OPINION: Guardians of the peace a law unto themselves?
GARDA corruption, like cellulite on someone’s bum, does not become visible overnight. It slowly develops below the surface of the body politic, much in the same way as a bacterial infection spreads in a living person.
And, although corruption within the Gardaí is typically manifested by a pungent and disgusting odour, it isn’t necessarily a disorder that adversely affects all members of the Force. For instance, it rarely attacks the ordinary Guard who goes about his/her business with the best will in the world, keeping the streets safe and, in exceptional situations, risking life and limb.
The humble guard is a valuable public servant that the nation has respected and honoured since the foundation of the State. The same cannot be said of the bosses whose controversial antics, in conjunction with incompetent ministers for justice, have contributed to the notion that the Force may be spinning out of control.
Because in whatever way corruption is defined, recent events within the highest levels of Garda management have created a thick wall of stink that sends one running to find clean air. The fact of the matter is that a rottenness seems to exist at the focal points of Garda decision making, and it’s disgustingly similar to fermenting garbage!
Mind-boggling
The examples pile up. Some weeks ago, it was publicly revealed that the number of falsified breath tests was 400,000 more than the 1.5m originally stated. This came after Gardaí confessed last March that of the two million alcohol breath tests claimed to have been carried out on motorists between 2012 and 2016, one million had never actually happened!
The Gardaí also were forced to admit that 1,470,000 people had been wrongly summoned to answer charges relating to road traffic enforcement and penalty points. Only 14,600 of the people summoned were convicted.
An independent report by Crowe Horwath to the Policing Authority (published November 1st, 2017) makes for grim reading.
It comes to the conclusion that ‘the precise extent of the discrepancy in relation to the Mandatory Intoxicant Test (MIT) by the Garda Síochána and the incorrect issuing of summonses instead of Fixed Charge Notices probably never will be known.’
The report also depressingly states that, while a ‘range of explanations have been advanced, inadequate supervision and poor performance management’ were directly responsible.
The report’s authors state that the Garda Commissioner has been advised to put in place a proper framework for the ‘delivery of policing plans and ensuring accountability.’ Horwarth also adds that the breath test controversy was ‘a sorry chapter’ for the Garda Síochána and that public confidence has been damaged in a very tangible way.
To which the ex-Old Lady of Academy Street, De Paper, asked: ‘Can we identify any cogent reasons why a police force, tasked with upholding the law and maintaining order, could be involved in such widespread deception?’
With no answer in sight, the newspaper concluded that ‘whenever somebody roots around within An Garda Síochána, more falsification, lies and incredible excuses keep tumbling out.’
And that’s not good enough!
Vile smears
But it was the attempted crucifixion of whistle-blower Sgt Maurice McCabe that alarmed people most. He had been highlighting corruption and malpractice, particularly in response to the widespread quashing of penalty points but, instead of being complimented for his diligence, he was subjected to a vile smear campaign that was carried out by colleagues and senior officers.
The politicos were not slow to seize the moment. Sinn Féin launched a no-confidence motion in regard to Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald. The party sought her resignation as deputy prime minister because of the way she dealt with an email that indicated attempts were afoot to discredit the whistle-blower.
Fianna Fáil supported SF on the basis that Fitzgerald, as Minister for Justice between May 8th, 2014 and June 14th, 2017, was aware of the campaign to undermine Sgt McCabe. It too sought her resignation – a move that Taoiseach Varadkar refused to countenance as acceptable or possible.
Fianna Fáil, whose support for the government is vital for the Blueshirts remaining in power, threatened to withdraw from its ignominious role as collegial mudguard; and the fit of pique prompted the possibility of a general election before Christmas.
Heavy Gang infamy
Of course, public disputes and wrangling arguments are not new to the Gardaí. Since the 1970s, it has been under a cloud of controversy that some critics attributed to an over-reliance on World War II emergency legislation to get convictions.
It also suffered serious reputational damage as a result of the extra-judicial activities of guards belonging to the Heavy Gang, which permanently blackened the good name of the force.
The most controversial Heavy Gang case was that of five IRSP members who were wrongly accused of robbing the Cork to Dublin mail train near Sallins, Co Kildare, in 1976. Evidence was presented that the accused suffered injuries that, they claimed, were inflicted by Gardaí. Four years later the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the convictions and the men were offered presidential pardons, plus compensation of up to £750,000.
This and other Heavy Gang activities during 1973-’77 undermined trust in the Gardaí, a situation that was in part attributable to a quasi-fascist cabinet minister, Conor Cruise O’Brien, who was well aware of the practice of assaulting detainees.
Learned nothing
Much damage also was done to the rule of law when Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave, Justice Minister Patrick Cooney and Defence Minister Paddy Donegan summarily closed down a major Garda investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings that killed 33 civilians – the worst Loyalist/British Army-inspired atrocity in the history of the state.
There was the Kerry Babies debacle. After that the Morris Tribunal, which concluded that some Gardaí in Donegal had concocted explosives and arms finds in order to arrest targeted people. Then came the Smithwick Tribunal and the MacLochlainn Commission.
Recently we’ve had the alleged bugging of the Garda Ombudsman office (The Cooke Report) and now it is the saga of whistle-blower Sgt Maurice McCabe (the penalty points scandal).
Inevitably, decades of turning a blind eye to the dubious activities of out-of-control policemen took their toll, as did the failure to put into practice a system whereby correct policing and common sense accountability would be the norm.
All of which tends to confirm the fact that, as Ireland changed dramatically, the Department of Justice and government ministers learned nothing and forgot nothing.
Fred concludes: Cooney in my opinion has a lot on his conscience; a certain number of Gardai were allowed to use heavy tactics against innocent civilians during the dark period above. Let us not forget the Sallins Train Robbery and many others. The Heavy Gang was especially picked out by the Government of the Day and not one of them ever faced a Court of Justice. The people of Ireland sincerely hope that those days are long gone and that changes will be made to improve the mannerisms, the culture, and the social skills to the people that they are duty bound to serve. It is a long way off and there are many Rogues to root out but I believe Drew Harris will tackle this head-on but then again it is hard to know what type of personnel he will bring in as his own team, from across the Border ????
Fred
