HISTORY WILL judge the success of the Morris tribunal after it ended "not with a bang, but with a whimper", the biggest Garda representative organisation has said.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said that, despite the tribunal into Garda corruption in Donegal having "rattled on", public satisfaction with the Garda, according to a survey commissioned by the force, was still running at 81 per cent.
The editorial in the association's official magazine, Garda Review, also noted the Garda Ombudsman Commission. The commission was put in place following a recommendation by the tribunal for the use of independent investigators to investigate all complaints against members of the force.
"Changes were made [post-Morris], some hurried," noted the Garda Review editorial, by GRA general secretary PJ Stone. "The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission was introduced, as were new discipline regulations. But we are still in a situation where three-quarters of complaints are still under the auspices of gardaí despite our reiterated position that members want all investigations to be, and seen to be, independent."
The editorial in Garda Review is the first full statement by the association following the publication this month of the final two reports of the Morris tribunal.
It notes that when allegations came to light about activities in Donegal, the then minister for justice John O'Donoghue and then Garda commissioner Pat Byrne "had a hot potato in their possession and no one convincingly knew what to do with it".
He said the establishment of the tribunal "was one of the final acts" by Mr O'Donoghue before he left the justice portfolio.
Mr Stone writes that while some allegations made in the opening statements to the tribunal attracted a lot of media attention, such coverage was lacking when those allegations "were found to be negated". He singled out the cases of now retired assistant commissioner Tony Hickey and the still serving Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carthy.
Allegations about both men were first made by Labour TD Brendan Howlin and Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins. The tribunal in its final report found the allegations to be without foundation.
It was critical of the two politicians for not checking the veracity of the claims, which they had received anonymously, before passing them on for investigation. It emerged the allegations had come from Frank McBrearty snr.
Both politicians rejected the criticism. They said that without their bringing their concerns about the behaviour of gardaí in Donegal to the attention of Mr O'Donoghue, the tribunal would not have been established.
Mr Stone, writing in Garda Review, said Mr Hickey and Mr Carthy had been exonerated and that Mr Howlin and Mr Higgins had been "used". "As the former taoiseach [Bertie Ahern] said, tribunals can 'rattle on'. The Morris tribunal has finished not with a bang, but with a whimper. History will judge how successful it was for our communities."