Garda member quits after claiming force is riddled with corruption
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Garda member quits after claiming force is riddled with corruption

A GARDA member is quitting his job, claiming that the force is systematically corrupt.

The whistleblower cited issues with bullying and harassment, as well as corruption, as reasons for him wanting out.

He also claims that he hasn't been paid in four years, according to the Irish Examiner.

The unnamed former Garda claims there is endemic abuse of licensing laws in Munster.

He claims he was forced out on sick leave after he blew the whistle on what he claims were licensing law abuses as well as abuses of the Garda records system, Pulse, by his colleagues.

An investigation was then launched into the allegations.

After asking to be let go, he claims he was told he couldn't leave while the investigation was underway.

"I’m expected to live through a financial punishment beating, to live on nothing until what I have accounted for is proved true," he wrote in his latest blog posting.

"In 2020 it [the investigation] ends. No more. Time for it to stop. 14 days from now I’m gone. I resign from AGS [An Garda Síochána]. I’m done. I’m walking."

The whistleblower had claimed that a number of pubs were being allowed to serve after hours and some were even being allowed to operate without an alcohol licence.

He claims that over 20% of pubs, restaurants and hotels in the area he was based were trading without licenses.

Perhaps most worryingly, it's been claimed that Pulse records have been deliberately misused, in order to make it difficult to obtain official records.

It's understood that while the investigation found that a number of rules regarding licensing were not observed, no specific senior or junior member of the force was deemed to ave acted illegally.

The whistleblower member claims that ever since the investigation was launched, he has been ostracised by his colleagues and together with a strained financial situation, he was driven close to suicide.

In a blog post back in December, he said he decided to go public because he did not want others "to feel like they are on their own", amid news that 19 gardai are reported to have taken their own lives between 2018 and 2020.

He added: "I should have made that number of suicides an even 20 on January 12, 2018, were it not for faith having other plans for me.

"To those reading this who are suffering in silence, I know only too well the pain of being ostracised from everyone. I know first-hand the almost biblical torment of being subject to bullying and harassment.

"As a consequence, I have gazed very deep into the eyes of complete darkness. I have spent considerable time enveloped in the deepest depths of despair, having no idea of what to do next."