Summary: Senior officers aree accused of abdicating their duty, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent
The Morris Tribunal has delivered a devastating litany of criticisms of the Garda Síochána, accusing two Donegal-based gardaí of corruption, senior officers of gross negligence and exposing major flaws in Garda Headquarter's control of the 12,000-strong force.
Dealing with the explosive finds that were fabricated in 1993 and 1994 by Supt Kevin Lennon and Det Garda McMahon, the judge said some of the actions were "unpardonable".
In unprecedented criticisms of serving officers, Mr Justice Morris went on: "The entire story told by Det Garda McMahon and by Supt Lennon was a cover-up. A huge amount of tribunal time was wasted in attempting to get to the bottom of the lies told by them."
Urging Garda HQ to manage the force more actively, he said it was "all too easy" for Dublin-based officers "to be hoodwinked and misled" by local officers, while the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform "is now utterly isolated" from Garda Headquarters.
He said: "The flow of information is in one direction. It goes from Garda Headquarters to the Department of Justice. The Minister is obliged to take everything on trust."
Mr Justice Morris added: "The tribunal has reluctantly been forced to come to the conclusion that there was corruption among a small number of individuals within the Donegal division but it has also been compelled to find that this situation could not have flourished and gone unchecked had the leadership of the Donegal division not behaved negligently and slothfully."
Certain senior officers "fell below the standards that the public might reasonably expect of them", he said.
"It was as a result of a combination of corruption and negligence that the extraordinary events which are detailed in this report came to pass.
"Corruption can occur in many guises: here it was the abuse of police investigation for personal self-aggrandisement through fraud. That can happen again. Equally other forms of corruption, such as looking the other way, bribery, the taking of short cuts in investigations, the construction of cases based upon lies and many other examples can occur at any time.
"What is most serious about the situation in Donegal is the lack of leadership shown by officers at senior level whereby obvious questions were not asked. In the result, a growing situation of deceit was allowed to blossom to the fullest extent when the application of discipline and the energetic pursuit of proper standards would have snuffed out that growth at an early stage.
"The most shocking aspect of the Donegal investigation has been the extent to which ill-discipline came to pervade the gardaí through the abdication by senior officers of their duty to maintain the men and women under their command in good order and in the pursuit of standards based upon truth.
"The tribunal regards it as unacceptable that members of An Garda Síochána cannot be obliged to immediately give an account of their duties to a superior officer upon being asked.
"Thirdly, the tribunal regards with disquiet the promotion to senior ranks or persons who were unwilling or unable to give to their vocation the energy and aptitude that it demands."
He said the tribunal's lengthy opening statement had met with an "unsatisfactory" response, with most replies from the public dealing with other alleged issues of Garda misconduct.
"With the exception of a few replies, virtually no realistic response was received from members of An Garda Síochána in the Donegal division, past or present, even though letters were sent to each of them.
"The lack of co-operation from gardaí continued as the tribunal began its work, as could be judged by one officer, Garda Martin Leonard who said, in effect, that 'you don't want to hang your own'.
"It was clear that this ethic was active among many witnesses in order to prevent the tribunal making headway. This caused a terrible waste of valuable and expensive time," said Mr Justice Morris.
Charging that gardaí "deliberately withheld" evidence, he said they had sheltered behind "Garda-speak" in order to avoid answering.
"By the term Garda-speak is meant the practice which the judiciary have witnessed in the courts for many years whereby gardaí in the witness box will parry and fence with counsel in a well-recognised choreography to avoid answering counsel's question."
Unless tribunal barristers asked "precisely the right question", Garda witnesses were not prepared to reveal information.
"If counsel is not so inspired, that information will remain undisclosed. Asking such people for assistance in terms of a general narrative on a particular issue evokes no useful response."
However, the judge went on: "The habit of lying was not by any means confined to the gardaí. Civilian witnesses resorted to the practice to advance the interest they represented."
The investigation by Assistant Commissioner Mr Kevin Carty in 1999, provoked by allegations surrounding the death of Richie Barron, quickly heard of the allegations surrounding the 1993 and 1994 arms finds.
Mr Justice Morris said he found the lack of co-operation extended by gardaí to Mr Carty extraordinary, though he was given "candid and helpful" assistance by two former Ministers for Justice, Mr John O'Donoghue and Mrs Nora Owen.
Furthermore, Mr Carty received "reasonable co-operation" by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, the Attorney-General's office, and the Director of Public Prosecutions' office, which stood in "marked contrast" to the attempts at evasion by gardaí when they appeared before the tribunal
Satisfied that the Carty investigation team had carried out "a professional job and pursued their investigation thoroughly", Mr Justice Morris rejected Supt Lennon's allegations that the team had been motivated by "malice and prejudice" because of Supt Lennon's earlier criticisms about the original Barron murder inquiry.