Gardaí hit out at McDowell claims
Rank-and-file gardaí tonight called on Minister for Justice Michael McDowell to withdraw his ‘completely untrue’ allegation about their attitude to the Ombudsman Commission.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said it had never threatened not to co-operate with ombudsman, as the minister had claimed.
“It is of grave concern to us now that as Michael McDowell is not getting his own way in relation to the poorly-thought-out reserve proposal, he is now seeking to discredit the genuine concerns of our members by trying to tarnish the reputation of the staff associations,” said general secretary PJ Stone.
The three-member Ombudsman Commission is being headed up by High Court judge Kevin Haugh and will begin investigating public complaints about gardaí next year. It will have between 50 and 100 staff, but will have to rely on gardaí to carry out many of its investigations.
“Our contention has always been the commission would be better served by having an independent investigative body similar to what exists in Northern Ireland rather than depending on gardaí to carry out the investigation of complaints and face accusations of bias,” said Mr Stone.
But he emphasised that no threat of non-co-operation had been made.
Mr McDowell has been embroiled in row with Garda unions over their threat not to co-operate with his proposed Garda reserve.
His controversial comments came at the annual conference of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) earlier this week.
“I want to say that I was extremely disappointed by the stance taken by AGSI and the GRA at a joint meeting with me that threatened to refuse to co-operate with the Ombudsman Commission by getting serving members to refuse to carry out investigations for and under the supervision of the Ombudsman Commission,” he told delegates.
Mr McDowell went on to say the threat was not acceptable and that if it was carried out, it would amount to an unlawful subversion of the Ombudsman Commission.
This drew an angry response from AGSI president Paschal Feeney, who said the AGSI had never refused to co-operate with the Ombudsman Commission.
He said the association had had concerns about gardaí investigating their colleagues and would have preferred it to be fully independent.
“Let there be no doubt, we will support the Ombudsman Commission,” he said.
