Findings a black day for the force, says Agsi chief

The findings of the second interim report of the Morris tribunal represented a "black day" for the force and should be used to address the shortcomings it identified, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (Agsi) has said.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the report was a "damning indictment" of An Garda Síochána. It called for amendments to the Garda Bill to "protect the public and those within the Garda who abhor what members of their force have done".

Agsi general secretary Pat Flynn said lessons needed be learned but that it was up to senior management, and not members of his association, to decide the way forward. Sergeants and inspectors did not make decisions, they implemented them.

"The report is 680 pages long and while we have examined it, it will take some time to fully study it. But we accept its contents," he said. "It is a black day for the organisation but maybe this is what was needed, to go forward and change the wrong in the past."

While some Agsi members had been criticised by Mr Justice Frederick Morris, two - Det Sgt Hugh Smith and Det Sgt Sylvester Henry - had been praised for the manner in which they had focused on investigations in Donegal now under scrutiny.

Similarly, while some senior officers in the Donegal division had been criticised, many others had not. Mr Flynn said Agsi had recently presented a submission to the tribunal, which Mr Justice Morris had recommended be studied by the Garda and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.

Among Agsi's recommendations were that gardaí managing incident rooms investigating serious crime be given specific training for this. It has also submitted that all members of the force be given training in the analysis of witness statements.

Since the tribunal's first report last year every member of the force had received guidelines from headquarters on proper handling of informants. But in its submission, Agsi has recommended this training be made available to members of all ranks. It has also recommended that members receive training on the forensic examination and investigation of crash scenes.

"If this had been in place at the time of Richie Barron's death in 1996 the relevant people would have been called out and maybe the reasons for the tribunal would never have arisen," Mr Flynn said.

The Garda Representatives Association (GRA) last night said it would wait to see what short-term course of action the Government and Garda management would take to the tribunal's findings before it commented.

The director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties Aisling Reidy said the report had detailed such "serious shortcomings and inadequacies" that extensive amendments needed to be introduced to the Garda Síochána Bill.

"These findings are not about 'rotten apples' but about systematic failings which must be addressed."