Latest: Garda trust in whistlblower charter 'will take time', admits Justice Minister
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has admitted that it will take time for gardaí to feel confident acting as whistleblowers.
Minister Fitzgerald says the Government is working on increasing trust in the force, after the alleged treatment of Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
A new internal poll of middle-ranking officers has found that almost three-quarters do not have faith in the system for handing over confidential information.
"It's important that there are procedures in place that whistleblowers can trust," said Minister Fitzgerald.
"In Government what we've done recently is that we have the protected disclosures, which is unearthing quite a lot, which really wasn't spoken about before.
"We have GSOC, where Garda complaints now go.
"So it's going to take time for confidence to build, but what we have to do is to put the different building blocks in place."
A new internal Garda poll claims most officers do not trust the force enough to handover information as a whistleblower.
The survey of 579 Gardaí was carried out over five days last week by the AGSI - the group representing sergeants and inspectors.
When asked if they had confidence in the system for making protected disclosures within the force, 71% said No.
Some 91% said they either did not know enough about the procedures or did not have any faith in them.
"Because there has never been training, there has never been an education process, people simply don't understand what the current charter is all about," said AGSI president Antoinette Cunningham.
"AGSI has never been consulted in relation to a protected disclosures charter in an Garda Síochána and again I think that is a big mistake,” she said.
She added: "If 91% of your membership are telling you that either they do not have faith in it or they don’t know enough about it and 71% would not feel confident in the process then I think that is a matter that garda management and the government need to sit up and take notice of."
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast this morning, she said that the Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald made a "big mistake".
“What is sad about this situation is the Government now has decided to establish this high level working group but they have left the very people that are involved in the process on ground level out of it and I think that is a big mistake from the Tánaiste and the Minister for Justice,” she said.
“It is a very bad footing to set off on and I think it is symptomatic of how government lacks transparency in matters that affect the garda organisation.”
