Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Taoiseach to the House, and I welcome the commission of investigation under the stewardship of Mr. Justice Nial Fennelly, the Supreme Court judge. For Senator Darragh O'Brien to call it some class of cloak is just ridiculous. I do not believe any Government would normally subject itself or allow or encourage a Supreme Court judge to sit over an inquiry for such a length of time. That is certainly no cloak.

I welcome that a timeline has been set. As someone who spent part of my life investigating all kinds of things, I differ from Senator Bacik in thinking the timeline to the end of December is appropriate. As someone who had the costs, length and complexity of a tribunal laid at my feet as if I were to blame, I know something about these things. However, by December, I hope there will be a report and an extension will not delay it too much longer. It is important that the sequence of events leading to the departure of Martin Callinan are included, that the recordings relating to the death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier are analysed and that any other acts that reveal unlawful or improper conduct by the Garda Síochána will also be investigated. This is long overdue. The original authorisation of the taping and its continued use and updating of the equipment should also be examined.
I welcome the urgent approach being taken to the establishment of an independent policing authority. I am firmly of the view that rank and file gardaí know that this, ultimately, will help them in their work. A high-level committee is also obvious evidence of the commitment of the Taoiseach to this matter.
The task of GSOC has been a difficult and lonely task. It endeavoured to play its role in changing the culture of the Garda Síochána by encouraging greater transparency. It was very clear at the meeting last November of the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions, of which I am a member, when Martin Callinan gave evidence. He said:

[i]t is the case that I am required by law to assist the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and so I have no choice but to provide that assistance. As to whether I would wish it were different, yes I would.

When that is the mood music at the top of an organisation, why are we surprised there is a culture of secrecy? Any policing authority put in place must be accompanied by training and retraining of gardaí to help change the culture from within the organisation, not solely from without and not relying entirely on such an independent policing commission, although I do not need to underline its importance.
I am disappointed by one thing. I would have liked the commission to take a look at the procedures run by the Garda Síochána for the surveillance of mobile phones of those it believes may endanger the State and how it seems to be able to add new mobile phones to an existing order. Those newly-added numbers belong to other people whose identity is known and against whom the Garda Síochána is unwilling to look for such an order to tap their phones. Journalists are one such group and others fall into the category. This was not an issue when we only had landlines but technology has moved on. This is a matter that requires urgent attention and the logs of numbers held by the Garda Síochána for such surveillance would reveal numbers for which no authorisation was given.