Policing the police in full glare of media spotlight

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

Garda Commissioner Nóirin O’Sullivan is a little like the soccer manager who has been appointed to a team struggling in the relegation zone.

The previous manager has been sacked and there are problems aplenty within the squad. It’s not just that the quality players are lacking. Bad practices have crept in and there’s an attitude among the players that wavers between indolence and insolence.

But the only measure of your worth will be results; if you don’t salvage the season, and avoid the drop, you will be a goner too.

The additional problem for her is this – to paraphrase the lyrics of the song by the aptly named the Police: ‘Every breath test you take, I’ll be watching you’.

When there are problems, all the scrutiny will be focused on her. And she can point all she wants to these being there before her time. But this time around, they were discovered in 2014, after she had become the de facto commissioner.

And yet they have taken the guts of three years to be made public, with no real explanation as to why that is.

O’Sullivan is a tough operator and has struck a defiant tone when she has come under attack. She insisted this week that she won’t resign.

Sinn Féin has tabled a Dáíl motion of no confidence in her to be heard in mid-April. That won’t make a whit of difference formally but it’s clear the political support for her has withered away. She is on a slippery slope and I don’t think her press conference on Monday has resolved her problem.

It can be said with certainty that this time round there will no emissary travelling from Government Buildings in Merrion Street to the home of the Garda Commissioner giving timely advice on career options.

But what can’t be guaranteed is that the fate of O’Sullivan will not end up being exactly the same as that of her predecessor Martin Callinan.

As things stand, irrespective of how strongly she defends her own position, she is hanging on by a thread. Fine Gael remains the only party to express confidence in her.

On Tuesday morning, Fianna Fáil’s Jim O’Callaghan said that O’Sullivan had yet to produce a comprehensive statement on how the Gardaí managed to over-exaggerate its figures for breath test to such a breath-taking extent. He laid down specific and testing conditions for the retention of their support. She needs to do that now, and even then it’s unlikely that Fianna Fail will row in behind her.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.