Mr. Hugh Hume:

I will make a start on responding to the Vice Chairman. I am grateful for the opportunity to talk about our work. The breadth and scale of investigations within GSOC are significant. We talked already about the local intervention schemes. Let us consider an example where there has been a failure of service and a member of the public has come to us for assistance. That is one level. It can be very important for that individual and have a major effect on his or her ability to work or function. Such cases can run from bad manners, bad behaviours and indirection to failures to investigate a matter that is brought to the attention of a garda. In our report, we talk about a case where a landlord was potentially bullying and harassing an individual. That individual sought assistance from the Garda and the garda in that case failed to do anything. That case was then referred to us. I will talk about that case again in a moment because it is a good example.

There are also cases that include a more serious neglect of duty in a disciplinary sense. Such disciplinary cases can be more layered. There may be indications that there is some sort of bias involved because of somebody's background, the geographic area concerned or the person's orientation.

There are also criminal matters. Such cases can commence with a small level assault or excessive use of a baton or handcuffs. As Ms Logan has already talked about, criminal matters can also include some of the most serious cases, for example, abuse of power for sexual gain, domestic violence and even rape. That is the full spectrum of behaviours, including criminality, indiscipline and poor service. GSOC is currently considering accusations of poor service through to the most serious matters of criminal matters on a daily basis.

The Vice Chairman also asked about supervised and unsupervised disciplinary investigations. I mentioned the example of the individual who complained about a landlord. When a complaint comes to GSOC, as Mr. Justice MacCabe said, there is an assessment process to decide the nature of that complaint, the resource and the immediate steps that need to be taken. That assessment process could identify whether the issue is disciplinary or criminal. All criminal matters will reside with GSOC. We investigate all criminal matters and do not allocate them to anyone else for investigation.

We receive death or serious harm referrals from the Garda in cases, for example, where somebody is found dead in a cell or after a road traffic collision. The Garda Commissioner may delegate that to a superintendent who will tell us that a certain person has suffered death or serious harm in circumstances in which the Garda may have played a role. We investigate that. It is never passed to any other body. It is only GSOC that deals with that.

I will move on to disciplinary investigations and the core of the Vice Chairman's question about supervised and unsupervised disciplinary investigations. There are three types of investigation, namely, unsupervised, supervised and GSOC-led disciplinary investigations. When the assessment comes in, we will consider the harm that the allegation may have caused. The example I gave of the landlord who was being abusive and threatening to his tenant was dealt with as an unsupervised investigation. We passed that back to the Garda, which investigated it. Such investigations are not done without any oversight because the Garda has to report back to us with its findings, which we look at. There is also an appeals mechanism. In that case, the Garda decided the situation was not good enough. The garda in question went before a panel and was disciplined for the failure involved. It is those levels of failure to investigate certain matters that are unsupervised and reside with a Garda senior investigating officer, SIO, a superintendent of the Garda, who then comes back to us.

The legislation states that a disciplinary investigation can be supervised by GSOC if we believe it is necessary and in the public interest. The allegation we talked about was around the failure to investigate a conflict between a landlord and a tenant. If that was a failure to investigate, for example, a domestic violence case or a case of sexual misconduct, we would say the investigation requires supervision. That supervision is quite intrusive. It means we can be present during interviews and can direct investigative strategies. The Garda is investigating but we are taking a close and hands-on approach to the matter. If there is any indication of bias, we might decide that is the appropriate way to proceed.

The third level is where GSOC leads on disciplinary investigations. That arises with regard to the most serious matters. In such circumstances, we might decide we want to take the investigation forward ourselves. That may be the result of a death or serious harm referral that while not criminal, touches on disciplinary matters. It might happen in a situation where the Director of Public Prosecutions has decided that a previous investigation was not a criminal matter but we decided there may be relevant disciplinary matters. We can also take on investigations under our own initiative.

That is a broad sense of the work we do. We consider the harm involved. If it is low-level harm and activity, the investigation is unsupervised. If a higher level of harm is involved, the investigation can be supervised. For more serious cases, we take on the investigation ourselves.