A new report carried out by Crowe Howarth and commissioned by the Policing Authority has concluded that the number of false breath tests logged by An Garda Síochána could be 400,000 higher than previously thought. Mary Wilson and the Drivetime team took listeners through this development and were joined by reporter Fergal Keane and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.
Fergal Keane read the report and took Mary through some of the main findings. He said that as well as the new number of 1.8million false tests (up from previous estimates of 1.4million), this report delves more deeply into the realm of management within the Gardaí when compared to previous reports. Citing the report, Keane relayed the main thrust of the findings.
“Poor governance and accountability, coupled with a lack of supervision were at the heart of these problems.”
Keane went on to tell Mary that of the 28 Divisional Officers directed to respond with information, only half did so. He quoted the report in saying that when it came to the 14 that did respond, the data was “almost all superficial or lacked analysis”.
Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, joined Mary on the line to give her his take on the report.
“I very much agree that what we’re dealing with here is an unacceptable catalogue of deficiencies. Even stronger than that, we’re dealing with unacceptable and very bad behaviour on the part of Gardaí… where we have evidence of a culture of carelessness right throughout the Garda Síochána, which of course is wholly unacceptable.“
Listen back to Drivetime’s full analysis on this issue here.