Mr. Kieran FitzGerald:

Before my colleagues come in, I refer to the Deputy's earlier question on all complaints coming to us. A definition of a complaint has not been provided in the 2005 Act or any of the amending Acts to it thereafter. Such a definition would be very useful. We refer in our submission to all complaints, as does the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. The question then is what is a complaint? As Ms Justice Ring outlined in our submission, we see it and it is seen internationally as are all complaints of wrongdoing.

At the moment, we assume that a member of the public has to walk into our office, go online or walk into a Garda station to make a complaint about Garda conduct. That does not necessarily include information that comes to the attention of An Garda Síochána on criminal activity or misconduct committed by a garda. If a person is in custody and says that he or she has heard that Garda X has done something egregious, that complaint may never reach GSOC but it can be interpreted as a complaint about the conduct of a garda. We have to be very clear about what we deem to be a complaint.