Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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I welcome the witnesses and ask them to be precise as I only have ten minutes. I have a few requests for information that will not take up too much time. I will list them and ask the secretariat to note them and perhaps the witnesses would respond in writing.

I understand that more than 100 members are suspended. Can we get in tabular form for each year from 2020 to 2023 the number of those suspended by rank, the cost of their wages and whatever else for the total number of people suspended? Will An Garda Síochána also provide in tabular form the number of those suspended who are not sworn members, that is, civilian staff?

The second matter on which I would like some information in tabular form is the visit of Joe Biden, to include a breakdown of the total costs to the force per day, what percentage of it was in overtime and how many gardaí were on duty for the 56 hours over the two days by rank.

My third request for information relates to HR circular 44/22. How many reports were forwarded to district officers on the withdrawal of cases before the district court from 2020 to 2023?

I come from the mid-west. It will not surprise the Commissioner that I will raise financial issues about what has happened in the mid-west. I will ask about some of those in a moment. I represent Templemore. Morale in An Garda Síochána is pretty low and we need to do something about it. I concur with the previous speaker about the matter of the officer and the bicycle. There are also other cases, some of which are before the courts. I spoke about them before they were before the courts. I inform the Chair that I will not speak about anything that is before the courts, except to ask for the cost of investigations.

A number of investigations that relate to the squaring of fixed charge notices are ongoing in the mid-west. That seems to include two different investigations, Operation Bath and Operation Modulus. Neither has concluded. One is live before the courts so I will not talk about it. The second is not before any court. Will the witnesses supply to the committee information about the cost by year of Operation Bath and Operation Modulus from the commencement of those operations to 1 January 2024, please?

The witnesses said previously that some of these are in the public interest. I note that in many cases no senior officers have been put through either of these operations. I wonder why the focus is only on the mid-west. This stretches into Tipperary, Kerry, Cork and so on. Is it in the public interest? Is it worthwhile? How much is the cost and is it proportionate? Our committee is interested in the cost of this and whether it is proportionate and worthwhile and so on.

I would also like to correlate the following: the number of road deaths in the Limerick division from 2020 to 2023. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, is running a big national campaign. Will the witnesses provide in tabular form the number of road traffic deaths that occurred in that division from 2020 to the end of 2023 and the number of cases which were prosecuted from 2020 to 2023 that related to drink-driving, drug-driving, mobile phone use and dangerous driving?

I would like to correlate this across. The Commissioner will see where I am coming from. It is quite obvious.

It seems to me there is a loss of revenue to the State, so I am interested in the correlation between investigations and loss of revenue. An even more interesting question is this. How many of the cases that would have been prosecuted by the second unit of gardaí under Operation Modulus have not been pursued through the courts? How many cases have been lost because of the situation with Operation Modulus? I understand the figure is up to 1,400. If 1,400 prosecutions have not proceeded because of this, we need to look into that. I know there is a recruitment process under way to replace this unit. There is a fear for the taxpayer of the cost of the suspensions. Then there will be the cost of bringing in gardaí from other divisions. There there is the cost to the State of fixed notices that are not bringing in revenue. There is also the more macro cost to the State of a lot of cases that have not gone through the system, either by being withdrawn or thrown out. I am trying to get at how much all of this is costing the State in financial terms.