Eight gardaí suspended in Munster region over allegations of corruption

Wombatman

Nice to see something is being done about it anyway. Looks to be centered around road traffic offences and the local GAA. Solid day to drop a bad news bomb.

The probe is focused on claims that gardaí did not pursue Garda enquiries into alleged road traffic offences and public order allegations against a number of parties.

“Further to an ongoing investigation led by the Assistant Commissioner, Special Crime Operations (SCO), involving personnel attached to the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (GNBCI), eight members of An Garda Síochána have been suspended,” a Garda spokesman said.

“This element of the investigation is focused on corruption in public office.“

“As this is an ongoing investigation, An Garda Síochána will not be commenting on the rank or the location of the members of An Garda Síochána who have been suspended,” the spokesman added.

Last October, mobile phones and documents were seized from a number of gardaí, as well as GAA players and officials.

https://www.thejournal.ie/gardai-suspended-munster-corruption-5259863-Nov2020/

GAA players and officials?

Rows Grower

Eight Gardai suspended in Munster, seems to be some link to GAA...

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/eight-gardai-suspended-amid-corruption-allegations-1031086.html

Acosta

Muahahaha wrote: »

Here we go again

Who would have thought this would happen again like? Maybe it has something to do with all of them previously at it getting off scott free.

tayto lover

Great to see the Gardai weeding out the bad apples from their organisation.
Fair play to them.

LuasSimon

The guards are doing brilliant work in some parts of the country with huge drug finds etc in recent times , I’d know it’s not right quashing motoring offences but quashing a speeding fund for prominent local people was always going on and never overly bothered people , it’s the bigger stuff that’s been ignored or facilitated .
Always amazes me how big drug seizures aren’t happening in some towns that are awash with drugs . It doesn’t take Einstein to work out who is selling drugs in most towns but many are at it years unhindered ?? Makes the public very disappointed and disillusioned

malinheader

Gardai doing favours for people with GAA connections.
What's strange about this. All perfectly normal practice.
Don't know why people should be surprised.

suicide_circus

Pillars of the community

Harry Palmr

The GAA is like the worlds most public secret society.

Edgware

"Someday, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me"
Don Corleone

JimmyCorkhill

I hope and presume that if any of them are found guilty of any sort of corruption they are sacked from the Gardai and lose any pensions etc. that are associated with the role.

There are alot of dodgy Gardai out there and Gardai themselves will tell you that, needs to be zero tolerance when it comes to any wrongdoing.

thegills

LuasSimon wrote:

The guards are doing brilliant work in some parts of the country with huge drug finds etc in recent times , I’d know it’s not right quashing motoring offences but quashing a speeding fund for prominent local people was always going on and never overly bothered people , it’s the bigger stuff that’s been ignored or facilitated . Always amazes me how big drug seizures aren’t happening in some towns that are awash with drugs . It doesn’t take Einstein to work out who is selling drugs in most towns but many are at it years unhindered ?? Makes the public very disappointed and disillusioned

Watch Narcos on Netflix. Drug cartels work with the police to traffic drugs. Police line their pockets and Narcos give them a few raids and arrests every so often.

Rubberchikken

They should, when and if found guilty, be named and shamed and their pensions removed but that's not going to happen.

Anyone who is even slightly surprised at any of this is a fool.
I'm willing to bet this is only a very small percentage of the illegality our so called police are guilty of.

Their sense of entitlement and above the law attitude needs to be weeded out.

We shall have to endure public statements on rte about the rank and file being mainly great lads and 99.9% aren't corrupt cnuts ..... Likely some covid frontline spiel also. Nothing will happen the 0.1% of course or the handful caught.

screamer

“If they knew who I was, they wouldn’t even have stopped me”....... yet those Gardai had discretion, and these don’t, what’s the difference?

Stovepipe

with regard to the usual "take their pension off them" rant, people need to realise that (a) it's illegal because the pension is not solely owned by the State (b)it's not allowed because the wife or kids may need to have that pension as their sole income so they can't be punished for the alleged sins of the father/mother (c) their pension contributions are their own and may not be touched. All you can do is fire the offender and give him his contributions back.

arctictree

Suspended....on full pay no doubt

Solutionking

thegills wrote: »

Watch Narcos on Netflix. Drug cartels work with the police to traffic drugs. Police line their pockets and Narcos give them a few raids and arrests every so often.

The closet a Garda would get to Narcos of the local dealer slipping him a free joint

opfleet

Why is there such an obsession with the Gardai in this country? Any time, some negative headline comes out, a thread is created. We don't see the likes for any other profession..

cml387

Inevitable Line of Duty clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M1EaDbvEbM

odyssey06

opfleet wrote: »

Why is there such an obsession with the Gardai in this country? Any time, some negative headline comes out, a thread is created. We don't see the likes for any other profession..

8 serving police suspended.
And we arent allowed to comment?

Thats not an obsession.
It should be headline news.
Thats a sign of a healthy transparent democracy.

If 8 county council officials were suspended for turning blind eye to planning breaches by GAA players it would also be newsworthy.

Come back to us when you have an actual argument worthy of consideration and not this pathethic shameless and transparent failure at whataboutery.

Edgware

Say it ain't so Krusty

whisky_galore

This. Is. Major.

rugbyman

when i read this today, i googled it also and read that of three senior Garda who got nicked for something a while back, one a Superintendent,had reached retirement age, retired and was not now facing charges as a bent Garda,because he was no longer a Garda.
this reminds me of being told ,years ago ,that no serving Garda had ever been charged with something dodgy ,as they were always given the chance to retire before being charged. hence ,no serving Garda charged, side benefit ,pension intact

Acosta

At least there appears to be some interest in the current hierarchy of AGS to rein in the cowboys within the Guards, because clearly politicians going back years won't go near the issue.

skooterblue2

Edgware wrote: »

"Someday, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me"
Don Corleone

What are you looking for tickets for the Hogan stand in September?

boardise

opfleet wrote: »

Why is there such an obsession with the Gardai in this country? Any time, some negative headline comes out, a thread is created. We don't see the likes for any other profession..

I presume because .....

Dog bites man = No story
Man bites dog = Story

Police apply law = no story
Police don't apply law =Story

washman3

Harry Palmr wrote: »

The GAA is like the worlds most public secret society.

A certain player called Ronan O' Gara had his penalty points quashed.
I know of virtually every high profile player, hurling and football, in Munster and this name does'nt ring any bell.
Indeed a very 'secret society' :rolleyes::rolleyes:

The_Brood

Why do we tolerate this? Why do we just sit home and not rise up? Beyond disgusting how much we willingly put up with. I lose more and more faith in our society every day. We allow rampant corruption and incompetence without consequence.

The_Brood

The_Brood wrote: »

Why do we tolerate this? Why do we just sit home and not rise up? Beyond disgusting how much we willingly put up with. I lose more and more faith in our society every day. We allow rampant corruption and incompetence without consequence.

bit of an overreaction, maybe

or, to answer yr question: because we have a better society and better lives than 95% of the rest of the world and 99% of people historically

KaneToad

LuasSimon wrote: »

The guards are doing brilliant work in some parts of the country with huge drug finds etc in recent times , I’d know it’s not right quashing motoring offences but quashing a speeding fund for prominent local people was always going on and never overly bothered people , it’s the bigger stuff that’s been ignored or facilitated .

Some of them are doing brilliant work. Some of them are doing good work. Some are doing average work. Some are doing bad work. And some are being investigated for criminal activity.

Doing favours for 'prominent' people does bother me. Why would you do it unless you want something in return?

Glad to see it being weeded out.

Odhinn

Rubberchikken wrote: »

They should, when and if found guilty, be named and shamed and their pensions removed but that's not going to happen.

Anyone who is even slightly surprised at any of this is a fool.
I'm willing to bet this is only a very small percentage of the illegality our so called police are guilty of.

Their sense of entitlement and above the law attitude needs to be weeded out.

They've been given far too much leeway over the decades. They need to be held to transparent account.

Gregor Samsa

The_Brood wrote: »

Why do we tolerate this? Why do we just sit home and not rise up?.

We don’t tolerate it. We have laws against it. We have systems and organisations in place to deal with it. We investigate and arrest and prosecute people who contravene these laws. There’s 8 people currently under suspension, due process will follow. The system we’ve put in place to protect ourselves from this is in action and working. Why would we have to “rise up”?

LuasSimon

Another issue that should be tackled is guards not able to do their job because they have other jobs and are so busy with these other jobs !

Cluedo Monopoly

Will any of these clowns face prison?

Strumms

malinheader wrote: »

Gardai doing favours for people with GAA connections.
What's strange about this. All perfectly normal practice.
Don't know why people should be surprised.

It might be regular practice, but nothing remotely normal about it. If we start to normalize corruption and unprofessional conduct amongst the Gardai we are doing a huge disservice to ourselves the public who rely on them as well as the good honest and by the book decent members of the force.

Solutionking

Cluedo Monopoly wrote: »

Will any of these clowns face prison?

What are you going to charge them with out of interest? from the article they just didn't follow up on certain traffic violations. No idea myself but do we have a law which allows poor employees to get thrown in jail?

So John doesn't do his report on time and he gets fired into jail. New concept, I am sure my boss will like it

westyIrl

Solutionking wrote: »

What are you going to charge them with out of interest? from the article they just didn't follow up on certain traffic violations. No idea myself but do we have a law which allows poor employees to get thrown in jail?

So John doesn't do his report on time and he gets fired into jail. New concept, I am sure my boss will like it

It'll be quite obvious and there will be patterns of where (and why) they don't follow up on certain traffic violations. This turn a blind eye, nod and wink practice, GAA buds needs to be weeded out by the roots, as any inch given leads to far greater systemic corruption down the line.

KaneToad

Solutionking wrote: »

What are you going to charge them with out of interest? from the article they just didn't follow up on certain traffic violations. No idea myself but do we have a law which allows poor* employees to get thrown in jail?

Section 62 of the Garda Síochána Act

62.— (1) A person who is or was a member of the Garda Síochána or of its civilian staff or who is or was engaged under contract or other arrangement to work with or for the Garda Síochána shall not disclose, in or outside the State, any information obtained in the course of carrying out duties of that person’s office, employment, contract or other arrangement if the person knows the disclosure of that information is likely to have a harmful effect.

*I assume you don't mean financially poor? Guards are very well compensated for their work.

KaneToad

westyIrl wrote: »

This turn a blind eye, nod and wink practice needs to be weeded out by the roots, as any inch given leads to far greater systemic corruption down the line.

I made this point on a previous thread where I disagree with the concept of guards getting free stuff from businesses (usually coffee). I got accused of being a guards hater, or someone who has had bad experiences with guards. None of which is true. I just expect high standards of ethics from state employees.

Our country was a banana republic for years due to nod/wink/blind eyes being used in our state institutions: brown envelope planning, mother & baby homes, religious institutions running hospitals using their dogma...etc..

Cluedo Monopoly

McCabe warned us about widespread corruption and the state tried to crucify him. That saga must have given the dodgy Gardai a lot of confidence.

KaneToad

Cluedo Monopoly wrote: »

McCabe warned us about widespread corruption and the state tried to crucify him. That saga must have given the dodgy Gardai a lot of confidence.

I don't think it was a conspiracy against him, outside of the guards. I don't believe that the TUSLA were in cahoots to produce an incorrect report. I think it was a genuine TUSLA error & the guards (incorrectly) ran with it.

Why would the TUSLA social worker (who was named and owned up to her error & apologised) want to incorrectly slur an unknown (to her) guard.

mattser

KaneToad wrote: »

I made this point on a previous thread where I disagree with the concept of guards getting free stuff from businesses (usually coffee). I got accused of being a guards hater, or someone who has had bad experiences with guards. None of which is true. I just expect high standards of ethics from state employees.

Our country was a banana republic for years due to nod/wink/blind eyes being used in our state institutions: brown envelope planning, mother & baby homes, religious institutions running hospitals using their dogma...etc..

Are you putting a free cup of coffee to the Guard, Nurse, Fire Officer, etc, on a par with these ?

Cluedo Monopoly

KaneToad wrote: »

I don't think it was a conspiracy against him, outside of the guards. I don't believe that the TUSLA were in cahoots to produce an incorrect report. I think it was a genuine TUSLA error & the guards (incorrectly) ran with it.

Why would the TUSLA social worker (who was named and owned up to her error & apologised) want to incorrectly slur an unknown (to her) guard.

I don't believe for one minute that it was a genuine TUSLA error. Not one iota. TUSLA seems to be a very badly run organisation too.

McCabe is still hated within the Gardai. I wonder why that is. The good old days are over?

Richard Hillman

There is a whole section of Croke Park that is taken up by Garda during the big games. It's at the bottom of the Hill in the corner.

Its supposed to be for crowd control but I don't see any other sport where the Garda are given a section of the stadium to watch the game. They leave the section in the last 2-3 Minutes to go.

There is a very cushy relationship with the GAA and Gardai.

KaneToad

mattser wrote: »

Are you putting a free cup of coffee to the Guard, Nurse, Fire Officer, etc, on a par with these ?

I am saying that all state employees need to have the highest ethical behaviour in their jobs. Corruption starts small and grows.

State employees accepting freebies from businesses is not ethical behaviour.

KaneToad

Cluedo Monopoly wrote: »

I don't believe for one minute that it was a genuine TUSLA error. Not one iota. TUSLA seems to be a very badly run organisation too.

McCabe is still hated within the Gardai. I wonder why that is. The good old days are over?

I do believe it was a genuine TUSLA error. I believe the evidence of the TUSLA social worker who completed the (erroneous) file.

Why do you think she would lie? What would be her motive?

Cluedo Monopoly

KaneToad wrote: »

I do believe it was a genuine TUSLA error. I believe the evidence of the TUSLA social worker who completed the (erroneous) file.

Why do you think she would lie? What would be her motive?

https://www.thejournal.ie/tusla-hiqa-mccabe-4078823-Jun2018/#:~:text=Minister%20Katherine%20Zappone%20ordered%20a,were%20also%20forwarded%20to%20garda%C3%AD.

While the report from Hiqa is critical of Tusla in a number of instances, it stops short of blaming any one individual for the failures in the McCabe case.

It does find, however, that reporting and governance structures at Tusla led to the series of catastrophic errors in relation to McCabe and that the agency was aware of the error and could have taken appropriate action far sooner.

I will never ever believe that this 'series of catastrophic errors' which resulted in yet another smear against McCabe was accidental. You can believe what you want.

Limpy

Cluedo Monopoly wrote: »

https://www.thejournal.ie/tusla-hiqa-mccabe-4078823-Jun2018/#:~:text=Minister%20Katherine%20Zappone%20ordered%20a,were%20also%20forwarded%20to%20garda%C3%AD.



I will never ever believe that this 'series of catastrophic errors' which resulted in yet another smear against McCabe was accidental. You can believe what you want.

Considering the problem's that the "error" caused the person in question should of been sacked. Was she?

Cluedo Monopoly

Limpy wrote: »

Considering the problem's that the "error" caused the person in question should of been sacked. Was she?

Of course not, it was a 'clerical error'. Yeah right.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30777375.html

The HSE will not explain why the “clerical error” at the centre of the false Tusla sex abuse claims against whistleblower Maurice McCabe failed to be registered as a data protection breach, writes Fiachra Ó Cionnaith of the Irish Examiner.

A HSE spokesperson refused to comment yesterday, despite saying last weekend the “administrative error” was referred to its data protection section when uncovered — meaning it should have automatically been identified as a data protection breach.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30776365.html

A file containing a false allegation of child sex abuse against whistleblower Maurice McCabe was sent by Tusla, the child and family agency, to gardaí and widely circulated in 2013, however no effort was made to substantiate the claim, writes the Irish Examiner's Michael Clifford.

The abuse claims were made by a young woman in August to a counsellor, who contacted Tusla and gardaí. However, no attempt was made to contact Mr McCabe and put the allegations to him.

In 2014, Tusla admitted a mistake had been made and attributed the false accusation to a “clerical error”.

Yesterday, Labour leader Brendan Howlin told the Dáil that he had been contacted by a journalist who told him he had direct knowledge of the garda commissioner, Noirin O’Sullivan, briefing journalists that Sergeant McCabe was responsible for “sexual crimes”.

January 2006

Sergeant Maurice McCabe made a complaint about a colleague in January 2006. This complaint led to the colleague being disciplined.

The colleague made a complaint about Maurice McCabe on behalf of his daughter.

August 2013

When Sgt McCabe’s whistleblowing was dominating news headlines, the allegations reared their head again, but were on a more serious scale.

May 2014

The counsellor contacted Tusla to say she had made an administrative error in her report to them.

December 2015

A child protection social worker wrote to Maurice McCabe informing him an investigation was taking place into allegations he had sexually abused a child, allegedly involving digital penetration.

This was the first time the garda had heard about the allegation, the report stated.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/absolutely-incomprehensible-tusla-counsellor-mistakenly-copied-and-pasted-child-rape-allegations-into-file-on-garda-whistleblower-35438694.html

“The notion that a very serious report can be made on the basis of a cut and paste job is absolutely incomprehensible given the seriousness of the job TUSLA have to do on a daily basis,” he said.

“Where are the checks and balances and have they reviewed the processes in light of what has come out given that they have done an investigation into this in January of 2017?

“I think that TUSLA need to urgently answer their appalling failings and how the situation arose. How Maurice McCabe was not informed? How files were opened on his children, including two adult children without being informed? And why they haven't issued an apology?”

This honourable man admitted that he nearly took his own life due to this sick smear.

Only a naive fool would believe this was simply a copy-and-paste error.

Sick and Twisted.

KaneToad

Solutionking wrote: »

Not sure what point you are trying to make? I asked if we have a law for employees who have poor performance. I didn't mean poor as in no money

The law you quoted above is about them releasing confidential information, which from what I read was not the situation

Quote: Cluedo Monopoly
Will any of these clowns face prison?

Solutionking wrote: »

What are you going to charge them with out of interest?

You specifically asked what these guards would be charged with. I answered with Section 62 of Garda Síochána Act. By 'squaring' fines as favours the state official is divulging confidential information?

But, I'm not a lawyer. I guess there might be more suitable charges? Maybe the Criminal Justice (Corruption Offences) Act 2018 might be more appropriate?