Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will ensure she has sight of the respondents I am referencing. In the case I have mentioned a decision, so-called, has issued.

I would like to comment on a case that has been referred to GSOC in the relatively recent past, but I am restricted somewhat in how I can reference it. I endeavoured to raise the matter on the floor of the Dáil and ask a question on behalf of my community about a significant Garda deployment that had had an adverse consequence for a resident in the broader community. I do not know the person concerned and have never met them. I know nothing about the nature of the exercise, but I understand it involved a significant number of heavily armed and black-clad members of An Garda Síochána. When the local media raised the matter with the Garda press office, they received the short and inaccurate response that the matter had been referred to GSOC and that An Garda Síochána would be offering no further explanation or would not shed further light on the matter. Taking account of international news, etc. which influences people's thought processes, there has been every imaginable, possible explanation for this exercise. That is not appropriate. People living in the community where the person concerned comes from are immediately suspect and labelled as being associated with serious matters with which they, I hope I am correct in saying this, have no association. I am a little fearful because the Minister's response was that as the matter had been referred to GSOC, he could offer no further illumination. Is Ms Justice Ring concerned that GSOC, in the referral to it of certain matters, is being used as a means of holding back critical information? As an elected representative, I have a role and a responsibility to try to elucidate information on what is happening.

This has not happened in my memory, living in the community all the many decades I have chalked up at this point. This was unusual but nobody will offer any explanation whatever. The GSOC referral is the reason, according the Garda press office and the Minister on the floor of the Dáil. That causes me concern. Do the witnesses have any concern about GSOC being employed, used or misused in such a case? Would GSOC's addressing of this matter take on board the wider consideration of what is reasonable? Communities appreciate transparency and having some sense of what this is about.

There is a negative or a downside that can arise from the holding back of all information. Others from the person's community have come to me in fear and every suggestion has been put as to what the wider interests might be, not only domestically but internationally and globally. Nothing could be further from the truth, they say, although I do not know. I am not an investigator or a member of An Garda Síochána. On behalf of my community, I am only trying to establish whether this is something that will become a feature of life. How will people address it and why would the Garda Síochána be so tight-lipped on the matter?

I will leave it at that. I am obviously compromised in how I can refer to this. I hope I have been careful enough and I understand the witnesses must also be careful and may perhaps be even more careful in replying to me. My first question is whether GSOC has concerns and the second question is whether it will consider the wider aspect of what is appropriate in deploying 20 or more heavily armed people in this way. What would give rise to such an action? For me it would be a concern that they might be met by a similar weight of force. Nothing could be further from the truth. I will leave it at that.