Reaction to the Morris Tribunal Report

Bock has been following this for a while and gives his take on the Morris Tribunal report over on the blog, he is not impressed with the Gardai, neither is Justice Morris and neither is Jim Higgins.

Considering he was being moved on, it is clear that Lenihan was covering for any successor in dumping this report today. It will die as a new Minister takes time to “settle in” and, like the Lismullen authorisation, covers the successor and the incumbent at the same time.

From Bock:

But Mr Justice Fred Morris is a crafty old bird and he saw through the lies.  I’ll just give you a flavour of what he said in his report and you can read the whole lot on the tribunal web site if you want to.  Have a look at these extracts in Morris’s own words:

• Once again, the Tribunal was faced with Gardaí who were determined to hide the truth of what happened. They made statements to their superiors which were in many instances minimalist in their detail and failed to give a fully truthful account; in a number of instances the statements were a complete fabrication.

• It was disturbing to find a  deep seated reluctance to concede that a colleague had acted  incorrectly or wrongfully or that the complaints made by the detainees were true – the wall of silence was maintained.

• Unfortunately, this approach extended to and was encouraged by senior officers in this investigation and in the overall approach adopted by An Garda Síochána to external complaints.

Jim Higgins:

I welcome the fact that the Tribunal has highlighted the Garda foot-dragging in making adequate changes to the informant system. What is particularly shocking, however, is that the Tribunal has arrived at the conclusion that the Garda Síochána is losing its character as a disciplined Force and that the gradual erosion of discipline will lead to, in the words of the Tribunal, ‘disaster’.

“I commend the Tribunal for its blunt assessment of the shortcomings in An Garda Síochána and it is very disappointing that such short-comings have not been addressed in view of the fact that the Tribunal has been making recommendations in relation to Garda changes for over a five-year period.