Madam, - I note that Mr Joe Dirwan of the AGSI has made use of your columns to question the competence of myself and my colleagues on the Garda Management Advisory Group to comment and advise on issues relating to management and human resources in An Garda Síochána (Opinion & Analysis, October 2nd).
I leave it to others to assess the relevance of our cumulative experience to the management of a large and complex organisation in a period of rapid change, and confine myself to two brief comments.
In my experience, a tendency to want to shoot the messenger generally betrays both an unwillingness to hear unwelcome truths, and a poverty of argument to refute them.
In the light of the trenchant criticism of Garda management
contained in the reports of Mr Justice Morris, and despite the
improvements effected by the efforts of Commissioner Conroy, it
requires a remarkable degree of fortitude for any representative
body to maintain that there are no benefits to be gained by even a
fleeting glance at current best practice in both the private and
wider public sector. - Yours, etc,
MAURICE HAYES,
Bullseye Park,
Downpatrick,
Co Down.