Independent police commission urged

Demands were made in the Dáil for an independent police commission as Labour and the Green Party claimed the Garda Síochána Bill was not sufficient to meet the recommendations made in the Morris report for Garda reform.

Calls were also made for the Minister for Justice and his predecessor to make statements to the Dáil about their opposition to the establishment of the tribunal.

The demands were made during a brief discussion of the second Morris tribunal report, during which Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said the Government took a "most serious view" of the report's "very disturbing and shocking catalogue" of events in Donegal.

The report found that Frank McBrearty jnr and his cousin Mark McConnell had been framed for the murder of cattle dealer Richie Barron, when a murder had never taken place. It also found evidence of wilful blunders, gross negligence, laziness and a rush to judge individuals as guilty.

The Government and Minister for Justice accepted the report's findings and would act on them, Mr Cowen said.

A number of gardaí had been dismissed or retired, but the response to the report had to go far beyond the implications for individual members. "Substantial reform is required and that is what is before this House in the Garda Síochána Bill," Mr Cowen said.

It establishes a Garda Síochána ombudsman commission and an inspectorate to examine and report on an ongoing basis.

An amendment to the Bill will require gardaí to account for their actions as members of the force, a "key response" to the report's findings and recommendations.

But Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said while his party had supported the Bill to speed up delivery of an independent and effective complaints system, "it remains to be seen whether what passed through committee stage last evening is a vehicle of sufficient authority to deal with situations like this".

He also called on former justice Minister John O'Donoghue and Mr McDowell to explain why they had "set their face" against an inquiry. Mr McDowell, as attorney general, "advised the then government on every occasion that there was no need for a public inquiry into these matters to explain their response".

It was a shame, he said, "that at the very highest level of where people expect absolute security and integrity, that the Morris report points clearly at a rottenness right at its core".

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte claimed Mr McDowell had opposed the setting up of the Morris tribunal "tooth and nail". He added: "Mr Justice Morris is not just talking about a little local difficulty in Co Donegal. It is far more serious than that."

He had great respect for Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy "but I cannot understand why he said, as recently as three weeks ago, that the inquiry into the death of Mr Richie Barron was thorough and efficient. The House should be profoundly disturbed by remarks of that nature."

He called for a Garda authority "separate from the Department of Justice" but "nothing in the Garda Síochána Bill will address the core issue, which is that unaccountable power is a very dangerous thing".

He pointed out that Labour TD Brendan Howlin's case was still before the Supreme Court, on the protection of a whistleblower, linked to the Morris tribunal case.

John Gormley (Green Party, Dublin South-East) also called for a "proper independent body to investigate fully complaints against the gardaí", not the "sticking-plaster proposal" the Minister had put forward to amend the Garda Síochána Bill".

Martin Ferris (SF, Kerry North) called for an examination of the convictions secured on evidence produced by the senior gardaí mentioned in the report. He also said that if what happened in Donegal was the result of a small number of gardaí being "out of control" then one would assume that there was "never a heavy gang" in the State.

A full debate on the report takes place in two weeks.