Tánaiste Simon Harris has said that any gardaí who display a “brazen” lack of regard for roads policing are “seriously letting their colleagues down, reports Breaking News.
The Fine Gael leader was reacting to remarks made by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris, following a report that revealed some officers demonstrated a “blatant disregard” for their roads policing responsibilities even while aware their behaviour was under scrutiny.
This comes during a period of increased attention on road safety in Ireland, with the Government rolling out updated speed limit legislation and the Garda Commissioner directing frontline officers to commit 30 minutes of each shift to roads policing duties, reports Breaking News.
Simon Harris said he did not want to “tar any one group with one brush” and emphasised his deep respect for the gardaí.
“Indeed, it’s not that long since we were at a funeral of a member of An Garda Siochana killed while on road traffic policing duties,” he said at Government Buildings,” reports Breaking News.
“Having said that, I am concerned with what I’ve heard, and I’d like to be in a position to read it. So I think it’s important that what the commissioner said he intends to do does happen, that he publishes the report so that we can actually see this and analyse it directly,” reports Breaking News.
“Because any member of An Garda Síochána who is acting in the way that the commissioner outlined is seriously letting their colleagues down in the first instance, colleagues who work every day to keep us safe and would absolutely be undermining our road safety efforts in this country,” reports Breaking News.
“There are far too many empty seats at far too many kitchen tables in Ireland. We’ve worked extremely hard as a country, I don’t just mean as a government, as a country, to improve road safety over many years,” reports Breaking News.
“That progress had stalled in recent years and indeed we’d seen a negative trend, and this is disappointing and concerning. But I think it’s important that we have the opportunity to see the report, rather than to comment on a comment about the report,” reports Breaking News.
When asked whether he was surprised that a member of the Government had not yet seen the report, especially given that the Policing Authority reviewed it in June, he responded: “I am somewhat, but I haven’t had an opportunity to discuss this with colleagues in government yet, and I’d obviously like to discuss it in the first instance with the Minister of Justice.”
Junior Minister Sean Canney, who holds responsibility for road safety, described the contents of the report as both “shocking” and “serious.”
“There’s no point in us bringing in laws, reducing speed limits, doing all of this kind of thing, if we don’t have a functional enforcement section within the gardaí,” he said on RTÉ Radio, reports Breaking News.
Mr Canney said his thoughts were with the families of the 95 people who have died on Irish roads so far this year.
He confirmed he had not read the report from the Crowe consultancy, which has previously carried out investigations for An Garda Síochána, but intended to meet Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan and both the outgoing and incoming Garda commissioners, reports Breaking News.
“I’ll be talking to the commissioners to express my deep concern with what is in this report,” he said, reports Breaking News.
He explained that the independent Crowe review involved a consultant “sitting in the car with a garda that wasn’t doing his duty and didn’t seem to have a problem with that.”
“So I think there is definitely a serious case to be answered here as quickly as possible,” reports Breaking News.
Mr Harris said he had initiated the review after receiving an anonymous complaint from a whistleblower.
Elaine Byrne, chairwoman of the Policing and Community Safety Authority, called the report “shocking” and said it found that some gardaí showed a “blatant disregard” for traffic policing even though they were aware of being observed, reports Breaking News.
“They were openly hostile to doing their job,” she said, describing the findings as a “wake-up call” for the Garda service.
She also pointed to a widespread reluctance among Garda managers to address poor performance, an issue she said Commissioner Harris acknowledged, reports Breaking News.
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