Conclusions reached by the Morris Tribunal of Inquiry into Garda corruption in Co Donegal during the 1990s painted "an extremely disturbing picture of Garda behaviour," Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said today.
Speaking at the publication of the 3rd, 4th and 5th reports of the Tribunal in Dublin this afternoon, Mr McDowell said anyone who supported the force was entitled to feel "great disappointment and dismay" at what went on in Donegal during the 1990s.
The reports contain scathing criticism of some gardaí and structures within the Garda Síochána.
Today's reports dealt with three modules. The first is the Silver Bullet report which focuses on the circumstances surrounding the arrest and detention of Mark McConnell in 1998 and Michael Peoples in 1999.
The Ardara Report, meanwhile, concerns allegations relating to the placing of an explosive device at a telecommunications mast in Co Donegal in November 1996.
The third, the Burnfoot Report, examines the arrest of seven people at Burnfoot in Co Donegal in May 1998.
The Silver Bullet report found that a member of the public, Mr Bernard Conlon, was induced by Detective Sgt John White to be found on the premises of Mr Frank McBrearty Snr after closing time so he could become a "reliable witness" in a prosecution against Mr McBrearty for a breech of licensing laws.
The Ardara Report concluded that an explosive device was caused to be put on the mast by Det Sgt White - with the intention of arresting protesters against the mast - but could not go so far as to say that he actually placed it there.
The Burnfoot report found that Det Sgt White deliberately planted a shotgun in a Travellers' camp in Burnfoot, Co Donegal, after which seven people were arrested "All of those arrested at Burnfoot were unlawfully deprived of their liberty," the report concluded.
"The arrests took place directly as a result of a member of An Garda Síochána, namely Detective Garda John White, deliberately planting a dangerous firearm at the encampment on the previous day so that it would be found in a subsequent search, thus justifying the arrest of the heads of household there," it says.
Det Sgt White was acquitted in the courts in July of planting the shotgun at the Travellers' camp.
But the High Court subsequently rejected his application to prevent publication of the Morris reports.
Tonight Sergeant White claimed the tribunal's finding that he is corrupt is perverse and insisted his acquittal in court proved his innocence.
Det Sgt White said he could not understand how anyone drew such scathing conclusions and insisted his name had been cleared by a jury of his peers.
"I think these findings are perverse, Judge Morris's findings are perverse. I do not know how he could possibly come to that conclusion," he said.
In the reports, former President of the High Court Mr Justice Frederick Morris concludes that An Garda Síochána has been plagued by mass insubordination and that discipline has been severely eroded.
He found there had been a fatal blurring between indiscipline and industrial relations in the force.
Justice Morris identified specific misbehaviour by a number of individual officers in Donegal throughout the mid-1990s.
The judge concluded that proper discipline has been lost in the force and that the cumbersome machinery used to deal with complaints against officers is overly and unnecessarily complex.
He said: "The Tribunal has been staggered by the amount of indiscipline and insubordination it has found in the Garda force."
"There is a small, but disproportionately influential, core of mischief-making members who will not obey orders, who will not follow procedures, who will not tell the truth and who have no respect for their officers," he noted.
Speaking after the reports were published, Mr McDowell said that of most concern to him about this report was its conclusion that misbehaviour was not limited to Gardai in Donegal.
Mr McDowell said the tribunal's findings on indiscipline and insubordination in the force were a matter of "grave concern".
He said: "The gross abuses of powers and fabrication of evidence that are identified in these reports are completely unacceptable and deplorable.
"I want to assure the public and those upstanding members of the Service that there will be no toleration of such appalling behaviour," he added.
Mr McDowell outlined new draft discipline regulations designed to deal with complaints against officers and allegations of corruption in the future.