Sir, I asked the Minister for Justice today:
If he has received a complaint concerning a recent class 1B police duty examination; if he has investigated the matter; and, if so, with what result.
The Minister replied:
I received an anonymous complaint in relation to the matter in question at the same time as I received notice of this parliamentary question.
It is not the practice to pay heed to anonymous complaints but, in this instance, because of the publicity given to the complaint by this parliamentary question, I have had the matter investigated by the Commissioner and he has informed me that while his investigations have not been fully completed all the indications go to show that there is no foundation whatsoever for the complaint.
I fully realise that we have in this country the finest police force in the world. There is probably no city in the world in which the police rank so highly in quality, integrity, honesty and decency. I raise this question now because that standard has been disturbed. I cannot understand why the Minister has not heard before this of the disturbed feeling there is, particularly in the DMD. I hope now to enlighten the Minister fully on the facts, though I feel the Minister must have some information, conveyed either directly or indirectly to him, in regard to this matter. The position is well known to the members of the Force. A superintendent was one of the examiners. His name has been furnished to the Minister. I am prepared to give the Minister outside of this debate whatever information is at my disposal. I will give him all the assistance I can. It would not be fair to give that information now because the Minister has told us the Commissioner has not completed his investigations.
This is a matter which stinks in the nostrils of all decent members of the Garda. A superintendent, an examiner, hands out examination papers prior to the examination with instructions to a detective-sergeant attached to Mountjoy Station; in turn, the detective-sergeant hands the papers to his own friends competing in the examination. That is not the worst aspect. There were 100 per cent passes on the part of those who got the examination papers from the detective-sergeant in Mountjoy Station.
This is a very serious matter. It is liable to create very wide suspicion and a great degree of distress amongst honourable men in the Force. I should like the Minister to give a guarantee here in public that any members who come forward to give information will not be victimised. The reason the Minister received a letter without a signature is that it is known from past experience that members who volunteer information against senior officers, such as the superintendent who was conducting this examination, find themselves subsequently victimised. Married men with families and homes in Dublin will not come forward and give information because they fear they may later be demoted, transferred, or prevented from being promoted because they will not be recommended by their superior officers.
Will the Minister give a guarantee to this House that any man who comes forward to give information will not be victimised and will be treated with all proper respect? The Minister knows there are at least four instances in which Garda officers did their duty and were subsequently victimised. If men come forward now, will the Minister guarantee they will not be blacklisted? I want a guarantee then against that.
This is something that must stop. It is something rotten which must not be allowed to continue. Surely the Minister appreciates that it is wrong and dishonourable for an examiner to give anybody the examination papers prior to the actual examination? I should like to know how many papers were printed for this particular examination. Into whose hands did they go?
The Minister has the name of the detective-sergeant who handed out these papers to his friends. Is it not a fact that when the superintendent gave them to the detective-sergeant, he said: "You know your friends." They all passed because they knew what they would be asked. That is not fair to those who were not on friendly terms with the detective-sergeant. The action on the part of the superintendent was a dishonourable one. He should not be allowed to sit on future examinations. The fact that the Commissioner has seen fit to make inquiries and that those inquiries are not yet completed gives ground for grave suspicion.
I ask the Minister to cancel that examination. I should also like to know from the Minister what information he has from the Commissioner as to any check on these papers. How is it in the power of one of the examiners to have the papers in advance? Why should he give them to a detective-sergeant? Was it the duty of the detective-sergeant to select his friends? This matter is the talk of the DMD. Not alone is it the talk of the entire Force but it is the topic of conversation in high places—at meetings. It was discussed recently at a well-known golf club where a number of senior Garda officers were present, who looked upon this with the greatest possible suspicion and thought it wrong that it should have taken place.
Undoubtedly, these examinations should be conducted in strict confidence. Naturally enough, we are told that the results of examinations, particularly in the Garda Force, are to be strictly in accordance with merit.
How does the Minister regard a situation of this character in which a Class 1B police duty examination is held and those who are sitting for the examination already know what they will be asked and the paper that is set for them? Does the Minister think it is right or honourable, or does he think you could have a contented Garda Force if you have men at the top who are prepared to see that their own friends are given the plums of the Force, whether they are entitled to them or not?
I respectfully submit that this examination has a bad smell, that the big percentage of those who have passed it and who had got the papers in advance from the detective-sergeant in Mountjoy Station have passed this examination unfairly and in unfair competition with those who did not get the examination papers in advance.
I raised this matter, certainly not with the intention of embarrassing the Minister, but in the interest of the good name of the Force. Everybody in this country knows that the Force is to protect life and property and that the Guards are the friends of the people. We want to create the atmosphere that the Guards are the friends of the people but we do not want to see a small clique in the Force victimising the greater section of the Force for any reason.
It is such work, underhand, deceitful and victimising, that is responsible for undermining the good name of the Force and for reducing its standards considerably.
Will the Minister give the House whatever information he has at his disposal in relation to this matter so as to relieve the minds of many men in the Force who are very much concerned? I do not know what investigations the Commissioner is still carrying on but I notice from the Minister's reply that inquiries have not been fully completed. I understand from that that there are other inquiries to take place. The Minister cannot anticipate what decision the Commissioner will come to in relation to the matter. It may be rather unfair to the Commissioner that this matter is raised in the House before he is given an opportunity of finishing his inquiries, but I feel that this is the time to raise it, while the matter is under investigation, so that it may go out from this House that if any member of the Force wants to help the Commissioner, the Commissioner will appreciate his services in clearing up this matter.
If there has been anything of an irregular character in this matter, that superintendent should be immediately stripped and fired from the Force. It is not right that this matter should be allowed to continue now that public attention has been drawn to it and the Minister has received a letter which is without signature. I can assure the Minister that when I put down this question, I was unaware of the fact that he would be receiving a letter at the same time as he was receiving notice of this question from the Dáil Office because I understood that the Minister already was made aware of this distressful practice. This is something which should not have taken place. I have raised the matter in the most friendly spirit, in a spirit of helping and giving the members of the Force confidence that there is somebody looking after their interests, that there is somebody to protect them against this kind of underhand methods. I feel the Minister will accept that am raising this matter in the friendly spirit in which I do raise it, entirely in the interests of the Force.
Certainly, if I were Minister for Justice and had definite information to the effect that the superintendent who was an examiner at this examination gave out the papers, I would have no hesitation in taking very serious and drastic action. I hope the Commissioner will take his time in making the inquiries and will not have a very hasty, slipshod inquiry that will not reveal the facts to him.
I am quite satisfied that the superintendent at this examination will not admit that he gave the papers to the detective-sergeant in Mountjoy Station but that there are members attached to that station and to other stations in this city who know that the papers had been given out. That is why I would ask the Minister to have this matter fully investigated so that the air will be cleared for all time.
I do not know the contents of the communication which the Minister received but I expect that the names of the superintendent and of the detective-sergeant at Mountjoy station were given to the Minister in order to focus attention as to where the Minister and the Commissioner should make their inquiries. If they have not been given, I am prepared to give the Minister the name of the superintendent who was the examiner and the name of the detective-sergeant who got the examination papers from him.
The matter is disgraceful and I only hope and trust that for the honour of the Force, for the good name of the Force, for the high standard of the Garda Síochána, the Minister will not allow this to be tolerated and will give a guarantee that any member of the Force who comes forward with information in this matter so that it may be cleared up and any injustice may be put right and this disgraceful practice may not be carried on again of disclosing papers in these examinations, will not be victimised in any way. I am reliably told that certain undertakings were given to members of the Force some time ago on another matter, where irregularities were alleged against superior officers and reported, but that the guarantees of no victimisation were not honoured. That is why members of the Force are so terribly slow to come forward.
These men have jobs and are very slow to risk losing their jobs. Some of them have reached the age when they will not get jobs anywhere else. They must protect themselves for the sake of their wives and children. That is why I am raising this matter. It is dirty work going on in the Force. It is against the young men and against those who are entitled to a fair crack of the whip and are not getting it from certain men in high positions in the Force.
