Our members are out there, day after day and night after night, faced with very difficult situations – maybe senior or very junior personnel dealing with these situations. I for one would like them to know that I am 100 percent with them in what they do; what they are doing on behalf of the people - provided they are complying with what they were trained to do and complying with the law.

Morale has been affected by the tribunals, of course it has. The reports have affected the organisation but to differing degrees depending on where you tap in. The older members of all ranks seem to be more affected than those junior personnel coming through in training or those who have graduated in the last five years. They do not identify with it, because they weren’t around when these things were happening. They continue to do their duty in the normal way and these issues are something foreign.

With our senior people, I want to let them know that the organisation continues to do its job, and does it extremely well. We should welcome the criticism provided in the longer term; we have put in systems to ensure that mistakes that were made in the past will not be repeated.

There are very few police services around the world that haven’t gone through situations like this. In my view, it is good for a police service when people come in and look at it; provided that their reporting is fair and balanced. That is very, very important to the organisation as a whole.

If a genuine mistake is made by our members on the ground they should own up to it and they will find that management will deal with that mistake quickly and effectively and make sure to support the individual who made that mistake. Our major problem is when we do make mistakes and we close all doors and six, nine or 12 months later this is disclosed and it becomes a major problem. Morale will be affected, eventually.

I am advocating a more open police service. We have got to be open and let the public see what we do and let the public see the barriers that are there preventing us from doing what they may want us to. The law itself is often such a barrier and this is the price we pay for our democracy.

Morale will be improved by more openness with the community and through increased trust that management will support members at the coalface. Opening up to the community and engaging with the community on what is going on in their area and what they would like to see has to be the right way to go. It is important that all public services and the community work together for the greater good.

MORRIS
Mr Justice Morris heard from quite a number of witnesses who have given evidence; significantly more than our inquiry heard (conducted by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carthy).

Kevin Carthy went in to investigate criminal matters and on a fact finding investigation. As a result a file went to the DPP and a number of disciplinary inquiries commenced into activities that happened in Donegal. All of those reports were made available to Mr Justice Morris – so he got a clear picture to start off his Tribunal.

Mr Justice Morris saw at first hand how some of the witnesses gave their evidence and he made a judgement call on that. He is quite entitled to make his judgement call on it. He has indicated that there are major disciplinary problems throughout the country. While I would accept from reading the reports that some people were clearly in breach of discipline I also say that we have over 12,500 sworn officers around the country and it is not unusual in an organisation of that size that there are some people who do not comply with the discipline regulations and who are sometimes in breach of the criminal code.

I am not saying that it was completely confined to Donegal. We have experienced it in different parts of the country, but I want to emphasise that it is not a major problem. It is not a major problem throughout the country. A lot of the individuals who are in breach of discipline accept whatever sanctions are imposed without any difficulties when shown the evidence.

There is a small number of people in a few divisions who shout loudly when they are being investigated for breaches of discipline and they sometimes go to the courts to prevent an investigation from concluding. Most others have no interest in what these individuals are shouting about.

 We have these problems and we must solve them in the long term. Perhaps the Garda Ombudsman will be a vehicle for the entire organisation. I have no doubts that our members will welcome that an independent source is dealing with those matters.

I am completely confident that the Ombudsman’s office will bring about major changes for us, for the better. It will be seen to judge matters impartially and to speak fairly as a result of the investigations that they conduct.

MANAGEMENT
If we look at what has happened since the first reports of the Morris Tribunal were issued, anyone can see that Garda management has not been ignoring problems within Garda management itself. Action has been taken. To suggest for one minute that the top echelons in Garda management weren’t fair to one rank or the other, is in my view wrong.

Unfortunately we lost some people. Some people seemed to be doing a very good job but they were found by the Tribunal not to have acted professionally in certain areas of the inquiry and as a result they are no longer in the service. They had been good servants of the people for many, many years.

If people had been truthful and explained where they were and what they were doing early on in the investigation, I think many of the problems that we are having today would not have been there.

I continually say to our students and probationers that you must be truthful when you are asked what you have been doing during a period of duty; you must be upfront and tell the truth even if you are in breach of discipline – let’s disclose it and deal with it instead of closing ranks and saying nothing. That is a disaster for us as an organisation. It is all about accountability.

I would hope that everybody who was promoted within the organisation deserved to be promoted. I am not saying interview boards do not get things wrong from time to time – of course they do – they are human. They go on recommendations put forward for the individual on the day.

Sometimes people get promoted and when they arrive at the rank, while they may have been very good in their previous rank, it might not work out. That doesn’t happen too often. I would hope that our membership would see the promotion system as transparent.

There are changes to the system at the moment, from now on there will only be one member of An Garda Síochána on interview boards and I have no problems with that.

I want to see that the best people are getting promoted. I do hear some stories at a local level where people are surprised when someone gets promoted before a colleague who appears more able, but if someone came in from the outside and looked at the paper process and could see the interview they would most likely arrive at the same decision.

I would hope that the process is open and fair as far as it is possible. I have no difficulties in telling individuals where they went wrong in interviews, but competition is competition. There are lots of personnel going forward for positions and there simply aren’t enough positions for them all.

CULTURE CHANGE
There is a culture change in An Garda Siochána and one for the better. I hope that we, as an organisation, can embrace change and I hope that all ranks become part of this change. As regards the Garda Inspectorate and the Garda Ombudsman, I know we have to help and assist them with their work. If people make complaints about members of An Garda Síochána then it’s their function to deal with those complaints. I, as leader of the organisation, will be cooperating fully and will put everything at their disposal to ensure that they have the best knowledge from us so that they can do their job in a professional manner.

It is such a different organisation from the one I joined. In 1963 we had very little technical support, we had some ‘walkie-talkies’ but very few of them. A teleprinter in the city stations in Dublin was our main communications network; we had very little transport. It was difficult to get equipment for An Garda Síochána, but as society progressed then An Garda Síochána progressed as well.

We are well-equipped as far as I am concerned, and continue to get better equipment. You only have to look at the transport funding; it is very substantial. We had some criticism about PULSE, but I can assure you it is as good a system as you will get in any police force in the world today. The new radio system will hopefully be ready to roll out from next year.

A police service cannot stay still and has to constantly change to be successful.

RESERVE JUDGEMENT
There have been a number of changes that have been made in recent times, including the Internal Audit Unit that will soon be civilianised and the Gardaí working there at present will be leaving that. The Garda Professional Standards Unit will be bringing about professional standards for each of the ranks and how districts should be run. We welcome the Garda Inspectorate and we are in discussion regarding protocols and they will measure us on how we perform right throughout the country. We are awaiting approval on the new promotions regulations. We have a new discipline code that is drafted and awaiting approval and, of most importance to our members out there, we have the covert human intelligence system put into place to make it clear how to deal with covert intelligence in a professional way, with a board in each division to properly record how informants are dealt with.

There are a lot of good things happening out there. On the educational front, all of our students now graduate with a BA degree in policing, accredited by HETAC. There are a number of courses for management and an Executive Leadership Programme involving Harvard and Smurfit’s business school. These are major changes.

Then we have the area of recruitment and the Garda Reserve, where 4,000 applications have been received. All of those individuals that have applied will have their backgrounds checked and security cleared, as have all members of An Garda Síochána.

I would say to all of our members, it’s like having members of the community support us every day of the week. If we did not have community support we would not be professional. We would not have the results we have today.

OK, our crime detection dropped by two percent last year to 35%; this year so far it is running at 37%. Our detection rate is very favourable when compared to other EU countries. Without the help and support of the community, this level of achievement would not be possible.

When I look at the Reserve, I see that these are people that are offering to help and assist us. It will take time for our members to see how these individuals will engage with the Gardai and the public and how we will engage with them. I think that it is in our interest to welcome them. They can only assist us; they are not going to hinder us doing our job. Of course they won’t be doing everything that a member of An Garda Síochána does because the training is not the same. What they will be doing they will be trained to do.

It’s another chance to engage with the community; we won’t be taking on every applicant. I think that is obvious. We will be looking at their educational qualifications and their attitude and character, as we cannot take on anyone who is going to cause us and the public a problem.

Be fair, be balanced and form your own opinion in time.

MEDIA SPIN
There is no doubt the media have clout in this country. There are some very good reporters, very fair people in the media but there are people in the media that report on certain aspects and leave out the main substance, which can be unfair. This is not necessarily just directed at An Garda Síochána but at others in public life as well. I am sure that it is tough for any editor of a publication to make sure that what is reported is fair to individuals and organisations.

Intelligent people read the papers and sometimes those people may believe that what they are reading is gospel, whereas the individuals being written about would know to the contrary. That’s where I feel there is sometimes a lack of fairness.

Where an individual writes a specific story deliberately omitting known details to colour people’s minds in a certain direction – then I think that is very wrong and very unfair. From time to time that is the case; I know that to be true.

I am not into the area of spin; I don’t believe in spin and I have never believed in spin. We stand on our record and we let the people judge us on our work. If we are wrong we are wrong and the media should report it. The media has done good for this country; there is no doubt about that either.

CAREER CHOICE
If I had my career choice again, now, I would make the same decision. The Garda Síochána has been an excellent job for me, though I am not saying that it was my own choice at the time.

I have met people in all walks of life, interesting people. I have dealt with criminal people who were not all bad – there is goodness in every individual. There are people who have served long periods in prison that I still talk to, we can get on well, we have both moved on in life and they have moved away from criminality.

As an organisation, I would join it again in the morning. When I look at the young people that are coming into the organisation I am delighted that I am still here.

LIFE BALANCE
I like the water – the sea particularly – and I do a little bit of fishing; I’d do more but time doesn’t permit. I like to keep fit – I do quite a bit of walking.

In my leisure time, I am an avid follower of sport and I am always delighted to see so many of our members involved in sport, whether it’s playing, training or in management. It is a great asset for us as an organisation.

I go to most GAA matches in Dublin and I go down to my own county Mayo for their games. I have been following Mayo for over 35 years and I have been disappointed time and time again; I don’t recall the 1951 triumph when Mayo won the senior football championship.

I thought in 1996 and 1997 that we should have won the All-Ireland. We had 70% of the play in the first year and it ended up a draw. The next year against Kerry, one man, Maurice Fitzgerald, beat us on his own. GR