I know who is responsible for the inflated garda figures.

First, there were a million false breath tests recorded by An Garda Síochána computer systems, then we learned that a further 500,000 false tests were recorded but not carried out. Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan reported that a large number of gardaí were just making up figures.

The leader of the Garda Representative Association (GRA), Pat Ennis, said that his association believed that his members were instructed to inflate figures and claimed that pressure was applied on members to do so.

Mr Ó Cualáin, the acting Garda Commissioner, said that his management has asked Assistant Commissioner O’Sullivan to establish if there is evidence of the allegation that management in some way were putting pressure on frontline members.

Nobody seems to be able to explain how it happened but authorities are determined to find out. They have stated that disciplinary action may have to be taken against a number of gardaí. The breath-test report does not specify how many gardaí may face sanction and neither does it directly criticise senior garda management. That is very convenient but not surprising.

Noirin O’Sullivan, the recently retired Garda Commissioner, had previously told the Policing Authority that consequences arising from this scandal, including possible disciplinary action, would be considered.

She said it went all the way down the organisational structure of An Garda Síochána and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. Senior management in An Garda Siochana were quick to take the high moral ground.

As far as I am concerned, there is no mystery as to how this happened. It’s highly unlikely that Mr Ó Cualáin will find any culpable senior officer because I don’t believe that there was a deliberate policy to inflate numbers for the simple reason that there is little to be gained from it. The blame for this fiasco is down to a culture that has existed for decades.

Much has been said about this culture but few know what is meant by it. To me, it’s best to think of it in terms of habit. A habit of doing things a certain way because that’s the way they were always done and the expertise wasn’t there to change it. To understand that, you must consider another term used daily by An Garda Siochana. It’s called a ‘Return’ and it involves counting.

A ‘return’ covers a multitude but is mainly used as a form of accountability. Returns measure the number and condition of physical assets in the organisation to help in the preparation of a budget strategy. All very useful stuff.

But there are other returns that simply drive people nuts because they don’t seem to serve any purpose and they take forever to prepare. Nevertheless, they’re required because it’s the habit that has developed over time.

During my thirty-five years in the Force, making returns was, at times, more important than actual police work. When I was responsible for community policing in Cork City I did my share of counting and I spent a vast amount of time drafting useless returns. At times, they were nothing short of ridiculous.

A huge amount of information was collected, collated and calculated that was of little use to anyone. This went on in every garda station all over the country and it took a lot of time and energy to put all this stuff together.

For example, there were thirty-three community gardaí scattered across the length and breadth of Cork from Carrigaline to Ballincollig and from Blarney to Mahon including everything in between. I was regularly asked for returns on how many foot patrols were carried out by these members and how many meetings they attended. Sometimes, these returns were required monthly.

What exactly constitutes a meeting is something that I could never quite figure out. Is it only a meeting if it lasts a certain length of time or is it a requirement that minutes are taken? Or if a community garda met an official from the local authority while walking along the street and they had a chat, should that be recorded as a meeting?

Given that the primary role of a community policing officer is to engage with the community and to meet people, it’s reasonable to assume that over the period of a month, thirty-three gardaí could notch up a fair few meetings. How these were supposed to be recorded in the first place was lost on me but why they needed be counted at all was a complete mystery.

Similarly, recording the number of foot patrols carried out by these officers over a monthly period seemed to be another fruitless exercise. What did it matter whether the figure was twenty or twenty thousand? Nobody could explain to me why it was necessary but it was another required return. It was part of the culture.

I represented only small part of the organisation but I made lots of returns. Thousands of other members did the same thing in other stations. There was no shortage of them and most of us considered them to be a pure nuisance and a waste of time.

Returns generated volumes of paper but they weren’t always taken seriously by those compiling them. They weren’t always accurate either and guesswork played a large part in adding up some of the numbers. Some of these returns were so silly that figures were often plucked out of the sky.

That’s the reality of it and the people who are now looking for scapegoats made these same returns while they worked their way up the ladder of success. They would do well to remember that.

If they want to blame someone for dodgy numbers, then they should include every member of An Garda Siochana, past and present, since 1922. Probably thirty or forty thousand of them, but that’s just a guess.