No holding back here.
The false breath test controversy took another turn on Thursday when the Garda Representative Association (GRA) placed the blame squarely at the door of senior and middle management in An Garda Síochána.
In a pretty explosive interview on RTÉ News, GRA spokesperson and press officer John O’Keefe was determined to absolve rank and file Gardaí for any wrongdoing for the massive discrepancy in the number of breath tests recorded compared to the number of tests reported between June 2009 and April 2017.
Quizzed by RTÉ Crime Correspondent Paul Reynolds over the falsification of breath test figures by members of An Garda Síochána, O’Keefe was adamant that middle and senior management were responsible and implied that rank and file members were informed there would be consequences if they did not follow instructions.
“GRA members did not falsify figures, GRA members were told to elevate figures by middle and senior management and those figures were elevated thus,” O’Keefe said.
"GRA members did not falsify figures. [They] were told to elevate figures by … management, and those figures were elevated thus." pic.twitter.com/uSa5v4kQ3l
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 14, 2017
Reynolds responded by informing O’Keefe that he had said that GRA members did, in fact, falsify figures because they were under pressure to do so.
O’Keefe responded: “They did not falsify them, the falsification occurred in middle and senior management, not at the lower ranks.”
Pressed by Reynolds for further explanation, O’Keefe shifted uncomfortably and replied: “The GRA membership did not falsify that breathalyser data statistics, they did not falsify any of those; the falsification came from middle and senior management who put them under pressure to elevate those figures, that’s where the falsification came.”
After Reynolds suggested that the falsification of figures began at Garda checkpoints, O’Keefe responded: “The falsification did not begin there, it began with the pressure from senior and middle management to elevate figures.
“That’s where this process began, it didn’t begin on the street, it didn’t begin during checkpoints; it began at the very beginning when these people were told if they did not elevate these figures, there could be issues.”
In the same interview, O’Keefe insisted that “there is no blame on the ordinary male or female Garda on the street” and that Gardaí were informed that a failure to falsify figures would have an impact on their careers.
“The defence (of the ordinary Garda) is one of duress,” O’Keefe said.
“They were under duress from middle and senior management.
“They were ordered to elevate these figures and implicit in this threat is that if they did not that there would be implications for their working life.”
You can see the interview in full below.
The full version: GRA spokesperson John O'Keeffe's interview with RTÉ Crime Correspondent Paul Reynolds over breathalyser data controversy pic.twitter.com/74XKy5157C
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 14, 2017
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