Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

On Friday, the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, released a press statement saying there could be no question of what has been described as a culture of non-enforcement of penalties being tolerated. That is exactly the situation being spoken of. That is the only explanation for the termination of 100,000 parking, penalty and motoring offences. It is the only explanation for one senior garda being responsible for terminating 1,000 cases. Despite what the Minister said earlier, the Garda circular dealing with ticket cancellation policy, Circular 45/09, is incredibly restrictive and would not account for the number of cases terminated.

I agree with Deputy Wallace. The only conclusion we can draw is that this issue is being deliberately downplayed. The Commissioner has had this information since January. This is a Commissioner appointed by the Minister, whose contract has been extended beyond its normal life. Is it a coincidence that after the "Prime Time" programme last Tuesday, a confidential Garda memo, which I have here and which was sent to every member of the force, warned gardaí not to release Garda information to any external party, under pain of criminal prosecutions? The same memo said that the use of PULSE records would be audited and monitored in order to protect the reputation of An Garda Síochána. In other words, this memo was trying to intimidate whistleblowers, who are lawfully entitled to go to Members of the Oireachtas.

How can the Minister get to the truth when the Garda Commissioner has known about this since January and has done nothing about it? He was warned about perversion of the courts of justice by senior gardaí on a massive scale, as was the Minister. We need a full public inquiry into these allegations. The PULSE system needs to be seized, and IT specialists should be sent in to retrieve this information in the interest of road safety and revenue to the Exchequer.

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