Mr. Kieran FitzGerald:

There is no statutory obligation or pressure on the Garda to refer such cases to GSOC. When one reads in the newspapers that a garda has been returned for trial, what is worrying is that we do not know how many investigations occurred about which we never heard. They are the ones which are probably the most troubling. If a garda is brought to court on foot of a Garda investigation, it looks like things have been efficiently done. However, we do not know about the investigations that go nowhere.