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EDITORIAL: Heads must roll for Garda incompetence

April 2nd, 2017 11:40 PM

By Southern Star Team

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The statement by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the weekend that his government had full confidence in Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan has further raised the hackles of opposition parties calling for her to step aside from her role during the various inquiries and investigations going on into shortcomings in the way the force is run, following revelations that almost 14,700 people were convicted of road traffic offences without receiving proper due process.

THE statement by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the weekend that his government had full confidence in Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan has further raised the hackles of opposition parties calling for her to step aside from her role during the various inquiries and investigations going on into shortcomings in the way the force is run, following revelations that almost 14,700 people were convicted of road traffic offences without receiving proper due process.

The administrative incompetence within An Garda Síochána that brought about this scandalous situation is going to cost Irish taxpayers a lot of money in legal fees to have all these convictions overturned on appeal and there may also be compensation due to people who lost jobs or were unable to get them, or were wrongly forced off the road, because of the errors made. Just saying that they are sorry and that this will never happen again is not good enough; the people within the force who were responsible for this situation need to be identified and disciplined for the costly mess they have created.

Also among the latest revelations was Garda exaggeration of the number of roadside breath tests administered by a staggering 900,000 – which really does beggar belief. How can people have confidence and trust in An Garda Síochána when they go undermining their own credibility like this?

Commissioner O’Sullivan’s stated last weekend that more examples of bad practice are likely to be unearthed by the Policing Authority. How much more of this can the public take?

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