Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána

12:40 pm

Mr. Martin Callinan:

I do not wish to be at odds with the Deputy because I seem to be fighting with everybody.

There might be a dispute over the date but certainly we were aware of the issue the Deputy has raised. That is forming a separate investigation. In fact, the file has gone to the Director of Public Prosecutions relating to that aspect. That is there and it is a given. That is not at variance with what I said earlier. To assist the committee further, when this matter was brought to my attention first, I received two lists, if I can call them that, A and B. They totalled approximately 400 allegations. Many of them crossed, and there was duplication in some. After the analysis of all of that we arrived at a situation where 189 separate allegations were made, and they related to 2,198 issues with tickets that were cancelled. That is where the examination of the Assistant Commissioner O'Mahony's team led. That was running separate to the other matter the Deputy has raised.