Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

There is no doubt that the circumstances giving rise to the judgment in question constitute further evidence of an extremely disturbing picture of misbehaviour by some gardaí in County Donegal in the 1990s. Anyone who strongly supports the Garda Síochána, as I and the vast majority of Deputies and citizens do, is entitled to express and feel a great sense of shock, disappointment and dismay at what happened to the person to whom Deputy Howlin refers. While the two members who were central to this case, one a superintendent and the other a detective garda, have either been dismissed or resigned, the case shows more clearly than perhaps any other the need for the radical reform which was facilitated and underpinned by the historic enactment of the Garda Síochána Act 2005.

The Supreme Court was unequivocal in its condemnation of the disreputable conduct of the two members of the Garda who were central to this case. I am heartened, however, that the court acknowledged that the manifestly egregious behaviour of the two gardaí in question should not be let cast aside our respect for the dedication shown by the vast majority of members through the years. It is important that I should make this point because I am aware that many exemplary members of the Garda Síochána feel betrayed by what the Supreme Court characterised as the "gravest dereliction of duty and abuse of power that one could ever fearfully contemplate would be engaged in by servants of the State and officers of law and order." In addition to the formal apology already offered by the State in the context of proceedings, the Garda Commissioner has written to the individual in question offering an apology on his behalf and that of the force. I understand this apology has been wholeheartedly accepted.

The Deputy asks my view about an offer which was made by "someone in authority" to the person in question to the effect that if he dropped his appeal the State would not proceed with the six outstanding charges pending against him and he would be transferred to an open prison and released early. My understanding is that while the existence of this offer only came to light during the civil proceedings, the name or status of the person in authority who made the offer was not disclosed. The implementation of any such offer, which in my view would have been gravely wrong, would require the agreement of the Director of Public Prosecutions as regards the prosecutorial aspects and agreement of the Minister as regards the aspects relating to imprisonment.

My personal attention was not drawn to this matter until the Supreme Court issued its judgment on 21 March 2007. The Supreme Court states the offer was made in October 1995 when neither I nor my immediate predecessor was in office. While I am not in a position to comment on the state of knowledge of the Minister of the day, I would be very surprised if the then Minister was aware of or approved the making of such an offer. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has no responsibility or authority in respect of the prosecution of criminal offences and was not party to the original prosecution or the appeal in question. I have been informed by my officials that from the checks made within the time available, there is no evidence in the Department that either the Minister of the day or officials were parties to, consulted about or even aware of the making of an offer of this type.

I have asked the Garda Commissioner to conduct inquiries into this matter to ascertain if there was any Garda involvement. Decisions relating to the prosecution of criminal charges are a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions and I am not in a position to make any comment on that aspect. I will, however, ask the DPP to ascertain whether any such offer was made by or made known to any person acting on behalf of the DPP. I will also ask the Irish Prison Service and the probation service to make inquires into the making of such an offer, which I regard as a very serious matter.

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