O’Sullivan must be straight with the EU
FOR over three years, Nóirín O’Sullivan has been in charge at Garda HQ.
Nobody, least of all this newspaper, disputes she took on the job at a difficult time. Not only had the force’s reputation taken a hammering over the penalty points scandal, it was further damaged by the contemptuous attitude of ex-commissioner Martin Callinan towards the whistleblowers who brought that issue to light.
Yet things have arguably got even worse on her watch. For what seems an eternity, one controversy has followed another.
It is four months since our sister title, The Irish Mail on Sunday, revealed alarming levels of financial mismanagement at the Garda College in Templemore. The law was broken in several instances.
Specialist investigators from Olaf, the EU’s anti-fraud agency, last month began a preliminary probe into the use of European funding at the college. Now it emerges that a full investigation is being launched.
As part of that inquiry, Olaf officials will have the right to interview witnesses and carry out searches of premises.
It is troubling enough that any State-run body should find itself in this position. But it is of far greater concern when the institution in question is responsible for training police recruits to uphold the law.
The potential for Ireland to be embarrassed in front of our EU colleagues is clear. But any humiliation would be even greater if Olaf investigators are met with anything less than full transparency and accountability from those they decide to question.
This development also reinforces the need for the Commissioner to start addressing questions in a direct manner. Though she has nominally presented a cooperative front at the Public Accounts Committee, she has delivered precious little in the way of straight answers.
Whatever else can be said about Nóirín O’Sullivan, she is not stupid. Even she must realise that Leo Varadkar and his Cabinet can only stand by her for so long.
Their patience might finally run out if the risk of being publicly reprimanded by the EU becomes too great. Especially when, in the uncharted waters of the post-Brexit vote era, we need our friends in Brussels.