Garda ‘must win back trust’

“Public trust has to be won and won again,” Acting Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan has stated in her first keynote speech since the Garda tapes crisis.

O’Sullivan told recruits that gardaí needed the courage to “stand up to any consensus that’s easy, appealing and wrong.” She added: “You’ll need the courage to question, even when questioning irritates and infuriates people who can influence your future.”

The Oireachtas has approved the terms of reference for the commission of investigation into phone-tapping by An Garda Síochána and in prisons. The commission will be chaired by Mr Justice Nial Fennelly, a Supreme Court judge and constitutional law specialist.

Ministers have instructed An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice and Equality to ensure that all tapes are retained, preserved and catalogued. A Cabinet committee on justice reform – proposed by Labour – will consider how to set up an independent police authority.

The commission will identify all Garda stations in which telephone recording systems were installed and also consider their rationale, how they were managed, who knew about their existence, the legality of the policy, and the resignation of Commissioner Martin Callinan. A final report is due by 31 December this year.

Fianna Fáil justice spokesman Niall Collins has demanded an earlier report. “The crisis and timeline surrounding Commissioner Callinan’s removal from office should be relatively easy to clear up,” he said. Sinn Féin has pointed out that the phone-tapping took place under previous governments.