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

I got Mr. Justice MacCabe's letter of 16 November. It tells us a little bit of something that the witnesses might confirm. I have often spoken of the lack of resources available and acknowledged that has an impact on the ability of GSOC to do its work. Mr. Justice MacCabe referred to the complexity of the investigation and suggested there was not great co-operation between OLAF and GSOC and he had no control over that. That is very disappointing. Then the five gardaí were seconded from 2017, four of them to 2020 and one to 2019, before the case was concluded. Why were they withdrawn before the case was concluded? It is up to the Garda Commissioner to decide where resources go. Will the witnesses expand on that? Those gardaí continued to do some work, according to the letter, that they had been investigating and continued making court appearances. They were not full time; there was some work associated with that. What extent of their time was used on investigations or work other than what they were doing in relation to the Garda College? Their secondment ended before the investigation was completed. One or more gardaí who had not previously been involved in the investigation completed it. That seems less than satisfactory because somebody has to read themselves into the brief and all of that. It seems very ham-fisted. What is the relationship with the Garda Commissioner in terms of secondments? If you look at staffing levels, and these are counted in and moved in and out, that tells you something additional as well. Is there co-operation going on?

There is a second point related to this that I ask the witnesses to deal with. We heard through media reports of John Barrett, who was one of the people at these hearings and who was involved in human resources and people development with the Garda Commission. He took a significant risk and had the courage to bring this to public attention.