Minister for Justice Michael McDowell's legislation to reform the Garda Síochána will be passed by the Dáil today, despite mounting objections from the Opposition and gardaí.
The Minister, whose legislation will be put to a vote this afternoon after a guillotined debate, has sharply rejected the Labour Party's charge that new powers forcing the Garda to hand over documents to the Government are "sweeping and illiberal".
The powers are necessary, he said, because the Garda refused to give the Government sight of an internal investigation into Donegal Garda corruption in 2000 and 2001.
The Morris tribunal into corruption could have been set up earlier if the Government had seen the Garda internal inquiry by Assistant Garda Commissioner Kevin Carty into the McBrearty investigation, Mr McDowell said.
Mr O'Donoghue received a 37-page summary of this report in August 2000, compiled by the current Garda Commissioner, Noel Conroy, though frequent requests for the full document were rebuffed.
The Garda believed the file, which had also gone to the Director of Public Prosecutions, should not be sent to the Government, and the DPP did not disagree.
During stormy Dáil exchanges, the Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, said the Government, and its successors, would have power to demand to see the files on themselves and their enemies.
Dismissing this, the Minister said the secretary general of the Department of Justice would be the one to make the request to the commissioner, and not the Minister.
Meanwhile, the Garda Representative Association (GRA) walked out of a meeting with Justice officials on Tuesday, when they were told of some of the Minister's late amendments to the bill. Under the changes, the commissioner, with the consent of the Government, can sack gardaí up to the rank of inspector summarily if their continued presence damages public confidence.
"The Government can sack a superintendent, but the commissioner can't sack a garda facing disciplinary action if he goes on sick leave for two years," the Minister said.
The GRA, whose Donegal members met last night to discuss the Morris tribunal and its aftermath, is furious the Department of Justice offered the briefing during a conciliation and arbitration service meeting.
Meanwhile, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, the Superintendents' Association, and the Chief Superintendents' Association are also believed to be unhappy.
Superintendents believe the proposed ombudsman will not prove to be an independent complaints system because it would actually investigate very few cases itself: "We are still going to have a system of gardaí investigating gardaí."
Complaints deemed to be minor will still be investigated by superintendents and inspectors. "The ombudsman will only become involved in serious complaints. So very little is going to change," one superintendent told The Irish Times.