Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

I draw the Deputy's attention to the section of the report where I talk about recorded termination reasons. Part of the exercise we did was examining the information on the PULSE system. Part of it was also examining the reasons in a sample of 300 notice termination cases. In those circumstances we arranged, with the co-operation of the Garda Síochána, to visit six districts where we asked for files for 50 randomly selected cases. The reasons that were recorded on those case file include the bees attacking livestock, being late for a religious ceremony and rushing to collect a relative from a bus station. People have to submit a letter of application for a cancellation, and many of them said the driver was speeding on the way to a hospital or GP appointment or visiting others in hospital. Those examples are taken from letters that applicants submitted. We also made the point that in many cases there are circumstances that are capable of further documentation being provided to substantiate the circumstances of the case. In many cases there was no documentation to substantiate the claims that were made.

I take the Commissioner's point that in any circumstances such as this an element of judgement is being made. I am not trying to second guess the situation. Another relevant piece of information is shown in figure 7.6 and the disparity between one region and another where there is a difference of 50 to 60 times in the rate of cancellation. These were the pieces of information I took into account when I arrived at the conclusion I express in 7.81 that, "Absent and inadequate records, and the recorded facts of many cases, give rise to concerns that many cases have been terminated without due cause." That is as far as I can go in it because I did not interview the individuals involved in the offences or the gardaí involved in making the decisions. There are also grounds for concern that certain "outside district" cases were terminated without appropriate authority.

Earlier, Deputy Deasy asked if we can draw conclusions here without seeing the information. I am presenting this information. An exercise has been carried out, the background documentation has been examined, and these are the conclusions I have drawn based on that work. Deputy McDonald's idea of asking for further redacted information is replicating the work I have done in some of these cases.