GRA conference: Policing body to get interim breath-test report
She said it was too soon to say when the final report — being compiled by Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan — would be completed, but the interim report “will give pointers” to how an extra 1m breath tests were wrongly said to have been carried out.
The commissioner has said there is a collective responsibility for the miscalculation, but the Garda Representative Association (GRA), which represents frontline gardaí who undertake roadside breath tests on suspected drink drivers, has maintained it is not responsible for the miscalculation, claiming it is down to Garda management mistakes.
Ms O’Sullivan said it was important to “find out how it happened and when was the failure”.
Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald declined to get involved in the blame game when she attended the GRA’s annual conference in Salthill, Co Galway, yesterday.
Ms Fitzgerald said “everybody [garda management and frontline gardaí] needs to work well together” and she added that when things go wrong they affect every part of the organisation.
The GRA has said the force has become “a political football” over the years and it is not happy with that.
Ms Fitzgerald said recently in the Dáil — in response to a Fianna Fáil motion — that political interference in our police force throughout the history of the State has damaged An Garda Síochána.
“So, I welcome your renewed call to remove politics from policing,” she said.
“It has been my overriding goal and approach since the day I was appointed and I want others to share that approach. That is why I prioritised the establishment of the independent Policing Authority, led by Josephine Feehily, which is making a very real and profound impact.
“Other parties pay lip- service to this, but the reality is that, at every opportunity, they seek to politicise policing for their own gain. That is corrosive and we must continue to resist it.”
