Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and interim Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan have urged the public not to jump to any conclusions about alleged widespread indiscipline in the Garda force.
They have insisted fresh allegations that penalty points were continuing to be terminated for no reason have not yet been tested.
Ms Fitzgerald said it would be “jumping to very wide conclusions” to suggest the force was out of control or undisciplined because the same allegations about penalty points have now emerged after the policing and politic scandals they had caused last year and earlier this year.
"I certainly wouldn't accept that as a description of our Garda Síochána, " she said, citing her visit to Roxboro Road Garda station in Limerick last week, where 24 murders had been investigated in recent years with all but three resulting in convictions.
“That’s the work that’s being done; day in day out,” she said.
“I would reassure the public that the new procedures are in place (for cancelling penalty points) and the law applies equally to everyone.”
Under the new system, gardaí must apply to a centralised office in Thurles, Co Tipperary, to have points cancelled. Previously individual members enjoyed that discretion themselves.
Commissioner O’Sullivan said any Garda member found by a new internal Garda audit, into the fresh allegations, to have acted improperly would be dealt with, but she insisted the facts were not yet clear.
“It would be very unfortunate if we were to jump to conclusions that the entire force are in any way irresponsible or ill disciplined in any way,” she said.
Both she and Ms Fitzgerald said the findings of the audit now underway within the Garda would be put into the public domain, but they stopped short of promising that the report arising from the audit would be published.
Last week the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) was strongly criticised when it made public the results of an investigation into a leak from within its organisation but did not publish the report.
Both Ms Fitzgerald and Commissioner O'Sullivan were speaking at the Garda College, Templemore, Co Tipperary, on the occasion of 100 new recruits beginning their training. They are the first intake for five years, with Garda recruitment having been stopped as part of the public sector recession-related moratorium.
However, what should have been a positive day for the Government and the Garda was completely overshadowed by new allegations that emerged over the weekend.
It has been suggested that Garda members were continuing to terminate penalty points in cases where there was no legitimate reason to do so and despite the introduction of new measures in mid June designed to make impossible the rogue practice.
The reforms came after a politic storm in which former minister for justice Alan Shatter resigned when a report strongly criticised how his department had handled allegations from Garda whistleblowers.
Former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan also made the snap decision to retire with immediate effect after months of pressure which was mainly, but not solely, related to the penalty points controversy.
Ms O’Sullivan said today that immediately she became aware there “may be problems” with the new system, those matters were referred by the Minister to Gsoc.
She had also ordered an internal audit of the contentious new cases and the Garda Inspectorate, which is due to publish a separate report into recent points controversy, had been informed of developments.
“When we have the results of that audit, if there are any infringements found they will be dealt with with the utmost seriousness,” she said.
“But I think it’s very important that we examine the new information... that we look and see exactly what the timeline of that information is, because that’s a very important factor.
“The new policy came in on the 16th of June. Now we must look and see what element of the new information applies before that time and what element applies subsequent to that time.”
Asked if she believed penalty points had been cancelled, without legitimate reason, since the introduction of the new system in June, Ms O’Sullivan said:
“I think in order to give a very transparent answer to that, that we wait until the outcome of the audit is completed and we get the context in which anything that has taken place, has taken place.”
She and Ms Fitzgerald declined to give a figure for the number of cases around which allegations had been made, saying the results of the audit we needed.
