Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 7 April 2022
Public Accounts Committee
2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission
9:30 am
Mr. Hugh Hume:
When a complaint comes in - or would have come in in 2021 - if it is a criminal matter, the legislation requires of us that we will then conduct a full criminal investigation into the matter. If the commission, having reviewed the investigation, decides that it may amount to a crime, we will send it then to the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, who may or may not decide to prosecute. If that office decides to return the case to us having decided not to prosecute, because it is the Director of Public Prosecutions who prosecutes not GSOC, then we may make a decision to go on to investigate that as a discipline matter. That is part of the convoluted legislation under which we currently operate. That can-----