A "FLASHER", a dealer in pornography, an officer who failed to carry out an essential duty and another convicted of assault left the Garda Siochana last year, the Commissioner, Mr Patrick Culligan, said.
While 99.7 per cent of gardai got on with their work as guardians of the peace during 1995, other members had been charged with sex related offences, larceny, drunken driving, hit and run accidents, failing to account for public money and assaults, Mr Culligan said yesterday.
The Commissioner was rebutting claims by the Garda Representative Association, at its annual conference in Waterford, that gardai were being "bullied" by management and "drummed out" of the force.
Earlier, the president of the GRA, Mr John Healy, said that Garda disciplinary regulations were "totally discredited". He said. "Young men and women had a long and bright career ahead of them in the force until some member of management decided to seize on the smallest of details and decide, I will make an example of them".
He called for the "complete scrapping" of discipline regulations and their replacement by an independent board.
In an extraordinary and detailed response to Mr Healy's comments, Mr Culligan, who retires later this year, described the GRA claims as "cheap", "populist", "outlandish and wholly defamatory" of Garda management. He quoted examples of officers who had left the force in the past three years.
He said "In 1993, stealing of Garda cheques and entering into an agreement with a prostitute eventually resulted in gardai losing their jobs. The following year, one garda was involved in a series of crimes and another in assault.
"In 1995, we lost two gardai who simply abandoned their job. We also lost a flasher, a dealer in pornography, a man who failed to carry out an essential duty and a garda convicted of assault.
"During the 51/2 years in which I was commissioner, to use your president's words, nobody was `drummed out' of the organisation or made an example of."
He went on "While I do not wish to overstate the situation, your president seems to be under the impression that the Garda Siochana operates in some form of uncontaminated Utopia. It does not. It experiences all types of problems which the commissioner cannot ignore or fail to confront even though it seems your president would wish me to.
"Members of the force have been charged, during the year, with sexual related offences, larceny, drunken driving, hit and run accidents, failing to account for public money, assaults and so on. All this does no more than reflect the imperfections of the society in which we live. The situation is not created by Garda management, not something that is pursued by any vindictiveness on the part of individuals."
Mr Culligan also denied a claim that student or probationer gardai were being unfairly dismissed. Since 1989, 1,698 probationer gardai had completed the training course.
Approximately 50 were dismissed as a result of management decisions, a drop out rate of less than 5 per cent.
He continued his attack on the GRA conference by pointing to the "headlines in an evening newspaper" which had arisen from an earlier debate, claiming that Garda stations were running short of paper.
"I can assure you that cutbacks are not so severe that the State cannot afford paper and necessary official forms to conduct our business.
"Granted, there can be occasional small problems with distribution which, I'm sure, is not unique to the Garda Siochana, but reference to the matter merely assists those who like to subject us as an organisation to petty ridicule."
The conference yesterday adopted a motion calling on the State to pay the legal costs of gardai who are cleared of any breach of the criminal law or disciplinary regulations but who face civil action by complainants.
The conference heard that Garda disciplinary regulations were "psychological terror".
Garda P.J. Kelly, of Sligo Leitrim Division, said civil actions against gardai who had been acting in the course of duty had a traumatic "and sometimes devastating effect" on the gardai concerned and their families.
"It is worth remembering that even though members are perfectly satisfied that they are totally innocent of what is being alleged, gardai are human beings. They suffer the same anxieties, worries, stresses and uncertainties as any member of the public would suffer if they were under investigation in similar circumstances, even though they were innocent.
He said the State had vicarious, liability in civil court cases brought against gardai who were employees of the State, but refused to accept this responsibility.
"The trauma caused in such cases is unimaginable. It has a devastating effect on members and their families and also has a demoralising and compromising effect on colleagues."