Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring:

Any use of force that involves firearms, Taser, or OC pepper spray as a result of Garda directive 10/10, and further directives in 2012, is notified to GSOC. It should be notified within 48 hours of the discharge of firearm, Taser or the OC spray.

We, therefore, receive notifications regularly, albeit not always within the required timeframe. We look very seriously at all firearm and Taser discharges and the circumstances that gave rise to them and consider whether public interest investigations are warranted. Sometimes we open them; sometimes we do not. There is no threshold for where we should and should not. For instance, we opened a public interest investigation when a firearm discharge occurred at Shannon Airport. A plane had landed and been detained and a firearm discharged accidentally into the tarmac. Fortunately, no damage was caused to property or a person. However, because of the proximity of the discharge to aeroplanes and given the nature of the airport as a public place, we thought in that instance that it was important to open an investigation. Perhaps now, with our greater resources, we are in a position to say we should open one in every instance, but we look at discharges on a case by case basis. We have had to do so in many cases owing to the resources we have had available.