Management blamed for breath test scandal by rank-and-file
Rank-and-file gardaí have said the breath test scandal was “entirely” the fault of Garda management and warned they would not be “scapegoated”,
The Garda Representative Association, with some 10,500 members, said that a “culture of competition” among senior officers drove the problem.
In a strongly-worded statement, the GRA sent out a clear indication that it would fight any disciplinary action against members by local management.
The report into the breath test scandal, conducted by Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan, has been sent to regional and divisional bosses to investigate possible breaches of discipline.
In its first public comment on the O’Sullivan report, published on September 6, the GRA said: “No one can categorically say that it was our members falsifying data — we have numerous examples of supervisors and managers having input into this system.”
It said there was “little or no” training and that the process of recording breath tests was “obviously flawed”.
The GRA questioned why Garda management required data on the number of negative breath tests at a time when Garda resources were scarce or diminishing.
The full version: GRA spokesperson John O'Keeffe's interview with RTÉ Crime Correspondent Paul Reynolds over breathalyser data controversy pic.twitter.com/74XKy5157C
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 14, 2017
"This data was utilised as a crude measure of productivity, and fed into a culture of competition among senior ranks to improve their promotion chances,” it said.
The association said it had raised the issue of falsification of crime statistics, at its annual conference in April 2013.
“During the height of the recession, when Garda numbers had been significantly reduced, we were told by Garda management — and propagated by Government — that crime figures were falling,” it said.
“We blew the whistle and said that crime figures were being ‘massaged’ downwards, and we were vindicated by the Garda Síochána Inspectorate and latterly the Central Statistics Office.”
The GRA claimed that it was clear from the breath test report that Garda management did not wish to be blamed for the debacle.
“But it is entirely of their own making,” said the GRA.
“Their obsession with data collection, for no clear and distinct purpose, while our members were issued with endless directives at a time of under-resourcing, no training, increased workloads and an unclear system of collation, was a policy of failure,” the statement said.
It warned: “Our members will not be scapegoated for ill-considered policies, and this should be the focus of political attention.
“If the people of Ireland have been let down; then it is in the management and deployment of scant resources to appease the need for purposeless data by those in power.”
This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.
