Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission is, in the scheme of things, a fledgling organisation. It was established on foot of the 2005 legislation, came into being in 2007 and took a while to get its house in order. It is important to reflect on the reasons it was established. It was established in response to the Morris tribunal and the absolute failure and incompetence of the then Garda Complaints Board, owing to a lack of powers and so on, to address many of the issues brought to its attention down through the years.

There was considerable hope when the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission was set up that it would be properly resourced and independent and that it would be able to carry out investigations without being hampered in any way by the force it was investigating or those making complaints to it. I remember arguing at the time with the then Minister, Mr. McDowell, that he had not gone far enough in the legislation and that the commission should have been properly resourced along the lines of the model implemented on foot of the Patten report in the North. That was the position of the Government at the time. This is why I find it strange that Fianna Fáil is so critical now of the Minister calling for all manner of things to strengthen the commission. Fianna Fáil was in government and hampered it from the start. I welcome the party's conversion and I hope the Minister can be converted to a position whereby we can have a commission with the required resources and which is on a par with, if not better than, anything we have in the North, where the police ombudsman is seen as a standard internationally.

Key questions remain to be answered by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and I hope it will be able to answer some of them tomorrow at the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions. We are keen to ensure that people have trust and faith in the organisation, that they believe there is nothing untoward happening and that if and when they make complaints, they are made with full trust in the organisation. The GSOC has a report and I hope it will be able to present the report of the analysis of the security sweeps of its buildings. I hope this is presented tomorrow to the Minister, the committee and perhaps the Garda.

The wording the commission has presented and the wording of the Minister are contradictory. The commission stated it could not conclusively explain the security or technical anomalies and that they were not a security risk. The Minister said there were technical anomalies and that what was at issue was the potential risk or vulnerability. However, there is no evidence to suggest that this is all they were and there is no evidence to definitively state that nothing untoward happened. The GSOC ended its investigation on the basis that no further action could be taken. That is the nature of the type of questions that arise with modern technology and telecommunications.

It was not a routine sweep and that is one of the key elements. A routine sweep suggests that once or twice a year the organisation carries out a sweep. The Minister alluded to the fact that a sweep was only done twice since the founding of the organisation. This means something triggered the commission's need to carry out such a sweep and to address any questions arising. The sweeps of the telecommunication systems and the examination of the security of the databases were triggered by something and we need to find out why they occurred. Was it because the commission was frightened as a result of some of the cases it has taken, some of the bad publicity it was subject to or some of the problems it had in trying to get access to information? These questions need to be answered and I hope the answers will come from the commission tomorrow.

Without these answers it will be difficult for the commission to work. Criminal and commercial organisations in this country have been investigated by the GSOC as part of its role in investigating An Garda Síochána. We should not say that there are no elements within An Garda Síochána who could be rogue as the contrary has been shown. An Garda Síochána as an organisation is not a rogue organisation - I have full faith in it - but rogue elements have been shown over the years, whether through the Morris tribunal, the heavy gangs in the 1970s and 1980s, the latest penalty points debacle or the questions raised earlier by others relating to Kieran Boylan and so on. There are suggestions that some members of An Garda Síochána, like members of many organisations in the country, have turned rogue and they need to be exposed.

The GSOC was set up to ensure those involved in any way in criminality within An Garda Síochána are exposed and that they do not end up besmirching others within the force. I am keen to ensure the public does not lose faith in An Garda Síochána or the GSOC, that we can have the faith required and that their work can continue without the distraction that today's events have created.

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