HC Deb 22 February 1877 vol 232 cc826-7
DR. WARD

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If it is true that a Constable, Maloney, of the Royal Irish Constabulary, was dismissed summarily without trial on a charge which ho denied; that the constable afterwards took an action against the Inspector General for wrongful dismissal, &c. when the defendant pleaded that he was not liable, as the constable's dismissal was the act of the Lord Lieutenant; that the constable was non-suited, but that he afterwards petitioned the Lord Lieutenant, who directed a Court of Inquiry of Constabulary Officers to inquire into the case, and that the court acquitted the constable; if it has been the custom of the Inspector General of Constabulary to dismiss constables, and at the end of the month or quarter to send a return of such dismissals for the Lord Lieutenant's approval; and, whether there has been instituted any adequate safeguard against the abuse of this power of summary dismissal without trial of members of the Royal Irish Constabulary?

SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH

In the summer of 1875 a very grave charge, of a character which any man, if innocent, would at once have desired to meet, was brought against a constable named Maloney. It seemed, at the time, that there was reason to believe that he had gone on leave, and remained on leave for some time, without taking any steps whatever to clear himself from it. Maloney was discharged, and the proceedings then followed which are stated in the first part of the hon. Member's Question. The man memorialized the Lord Lieutenant; and, as the result of inquiry into circumstances stated in his memorial, a court of Constabulary officers was directed to investigate the case, and, on their report, the constable was re-instated in the Force. The history of this case shows, I hope, that complaints made by members of the Force, however humble, will be fairly dealt with. The law gives to the Inspector General of Constabulary less complete power with regard to the summary dismissal of members of the Force than it gives to the heads of other bodies of police in the United Kingdom, and I have very recently sanctioned an alteration in the rules on this subject, with the view of instituting even greater safeguards in this respect than had before existed.