Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Yes, because it comes up routinely. We have expectations that oversight bodies can do the job. They cannot do the job if they are challenged by not having the resources to do it. I have asked numerous parliamentary questions about the length of time investigations take. It is not unusual to be told in the reply that one is taking five or six years. Even in cases I would expect to be urgent, investigations still take a couple of years. Attention has been drawn again to the resourcing issue here. There was an allegation about the use of force and cases went to the ombudsman. We need to see issues not going to GSOC, if it is not appropriate for them to go there or if the complaint relates to something that training could alleviate. I do not have a problem with the Policing Authority coming up with a definition, but it comes down to An Garda Síochána to review training so that GSOC does not end up with cases that should not go to it. Clearly GSOC is needed as before it was set up gardaí were was investigating gardaí.

Unless the Government resources the ombudsman, we will see these delays continue. Several of the replies I received talked about gardaí who were not working because a complaint was being investigated. Until a decision is made - it will either be dropped or go to the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, and charges will ensue - there is a vacuum. We should write to the Department of Justice about this because it is not good enough that GSOC does not have adequate resources to do the job. Five Garda officers were seconded to GSOC to do some work. The secondment ended before the completion of the investigation and while material from the European Commission was outstanding. This comes back to the Templemore issues that were raised several years ago. GSOC investigators who had not previously been involved in the investigation progressed and completed the investigation and generated a report that was considered by the commission. It looks like the work they were doing was interrupted. That is not a good way of doing things.

The other issue is that we count those gardaí in the complement of gardaí who are sworn members. We also count the number of sworn members in the corporate enforcement agency. There was a big row about the resourcing of that agency and it is difficult to be sure that the resourcing is adequate. We cannot ignore the general resourcing issue.

Does the C and AG audit GSOC?