The Police, Security and Community Safety Act 2024 was due to have come into force today. This legislation was signed into law by President Michael D Higgins last February to implement the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Irelandwhich were adopted by the government in 2018. The entry into force of this legislation would have the effect of creating a new statutory council of An Garda Síochánaa new Police and Community Safety Authority (replacing the Police authority and the Garda Síochána Inspectorate), a new police complaints mechanism, the Fiosrú (replacing the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC)) and a brand new independent reviewer of safety legislation.

Although announced by the Minister of Justice Helen McEntee At the start of the general election campaign, the bill’s coming into force was postponed and, at the time of writing, it appears unlikely to take place before a new government is formed. As a result, pending its entry into force, the police authority which has existed since 2016 will cease to exist on December 31, 2024 and there will be no policing oversight mechanism until the new police and community safety authority be created at some point. in 2025.

This situation is chaotic and will lead to a dangerous gap in police oversight in the months to come. The Minister had the option to extend the life of the police authority until the new entity was created to ensure there was no such gap. The decision to allow the police authority to wither away through legislative inertia and bureaucratic entanglements places its president, Dr. Elaine Byrne, who also happens to be the new authority’s president-designate, in an invidious and unusual position. Non-entities, one imagines, do not need chairs, but she will be the chair of a non-entity facing the public from the end of this year until the creation of the new authority.

Leaving aside these questions, which could be considered abstract, this appalling prospect is entirely avoidable. At a minimum, the Minister should ensure that the current authority continues to exist until the replacement body is formally established. A firm establishment date might even help alleviate any confusion. Failure to do so will have a negative impact on the effective functioning of the new body at a crucial stage of its development and will hamper its ability to operate with full statutory powers and without impediment to the exercise of full legal and operational independence. It will also have negative practical consequences for the recruitment process for a new Garda Commissioner in early 2025, a process in which the authority plays an important role.

There is no point in keeping the commission’s proposed new superstructure of governance and oversight, which is already well behind schedule, in a state of suspended animation for a prolonged period. From day one, the new board, authority, independent complaints mechanism, Fiosrú and independent examiner should operate with uncompromising efficiency and independence.

Since its creation almost nine years ago, the police authority has demonstrated impressive independence in carrying out its functions. Its founding president, Josephine Feehily, deserves credit for fearlessly asserting the authority’s right to hold police services to account, in circumstances of significant resistance to new processes of public accountability. His successor, Bob Collins, along with staff and members of the authority, advanced a culture of police accountability through constructive engagement with Garda leadership.

The idea of ​​taking a break from ongoing accountability while belated arrangements are made for the merger of authority and inspection – something that has been expected for years – is contrary to the most fundamental demands of independent and effective control of the police. The combined powers of the new authority, building on the resources and institutional memory of the old bodies and additional strengthened structures for community policing and inter-institutional matters, should have every chance of success. It is perfectly achievable to have a smooth transition from old institutions to new ones, without the kind of discontinuity that is currently being orchestrated.

When the Commission on the Future of Policing reported in 2018, having accomplished its considerable task in the space of a year, it was expected that most of its key recommendations would be implemented quickly. here 2022, the centenary year of An Garda Síochána. The context in which the commission was established was that of an existential crisis for policing in Ireland, in which policing and related issues had become politically toxic. It is so easy to lose sight of this over time and forget the context in which serious proposals for reform were made. The Covid-19 pandemic contributed to delays in implementation, but the most recent additional delays were avoidable and should have been avoided.

There is now a troubling narrative that too much surveillance is detrimental to policing. This may take the form of special advocacy by special interests and should be viewed with the deepest skepticism. The main political parties are scrambling to establish their “law and order” credibility and making all sorts of implausible promises regarding Garda recruitment. No one should be fooled by this, least of all those who work – whether as sworn or civilian officers – for the police.

According to Flann O’Brien in The Third Policeman, “it is a good thing to do what is necessary before it becomes essential and inevitable.” This could have served as the perfect slogan for the Commission’s report on the future of policing. We can now say, more than six years later, with impatient certainty, that we must do what is necessary, essential and inevitable before it is too late.

Donncha O’Connell is an established law professor at the University of Galway. He was a member of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland