A Mayo View: Unacceptable setback to our nation's road safety crusade

An almighty row has blown up which seriously undermines the integrity of An Garda Síochána.

Details emerging from the Crowe Report, yet to be published in full, revealed some gardaí showed a blatant disregard for their job of road policing while they knew their actions were being reviewed.

It poses a very serious question at a time when there is such huge public concern over the increasing number of tragedies on our roads year on year.

That question is: If members of An Garda Síochána are not taking their jobs seriously after being mandated to conduct 30 minutes of road policing duties per shift, then surely a crucial spine of a nation's road safety campaign is on very shaky ground.

Unsurprisingly, the disclosure by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris has caused widespread outrage, with the Minister of State with responsibility for road safety, Sean Canney, rightly describing the findings as 'shocking' and 'serious'.

“There’s no point in us bringing in laws, reducing speed limits, doing all of this kind of thing, if we don’t have a functional enforcement section within the gardaí,” he argued.

Minister Canney, who had spent a couple of hours in Claremorris on Friday launching a road safety initiative ahead of last weekend's bank holiday, said his thoughts were with the families of the 95 people who had died on Irish roads so far this year.

What should happen next is obvious. The damning report, by the consultancy firm Crowe, must be published in full, with the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, handed the responsibility of dealing with the fall-out in a very thorough and clinical manner.

The investigation had been given the green light in the first instance by Commissioner Harris after he received an anonymous report from a whistleblower claiming members of the force had been 'openly hostile' to doing their jobs.

One cannot be sure where this scandal will end. But it's clear there are very serious issues at the core of our policing force that are not conducive to ensuring that the best and most professional efforts are being taken every hour of the day to ensure the utmost of public safety on our roads.

That is extremely disappointing and completely unacceptable.