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

Is the Taoiseach aware that the foremost authority on road traffic legislation in Ireland has stated that there is nothing in legislation to allow senior gardaí to cancel any penalty points? Superintendents are making what he calls secret decisions behind closed doors with no authority in road traffic legislation to allow them to do so. This is a frightening situation, an affront to the premise that the law should be conducted in public. That is not only his informed opinion but is supported by Deputies on this side of the House who have repeatedly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality to specify the legislation that he believes gives power to senior gardaí to terminate penalty points. He has not yet answered those repeated questions.

Does the Taoiseach share our surprise that the Minister for Justice and Equality, who we believe has not yet seen the report of his own internal inquiry, has concluded that one of its key recommendations is that PULSE access must be restricted to rank and file gardaí? In other words, the conclusion of a report initiated on foot of evidence that rank and file gardaí had of malpractice by senior gardaí is that no rank and file gardaí will ever again have access to that information. In other words, the only people who can see what senior officers are doing will be senior officers. One could not make this up.

Will the Taoiseach tell us whether the Minister is deliberately trying to make sure that there will never again be a Garda whistleblower? Where is the protection for people who put their necks on the line to unearth malpractice, as the Minister encouraged them to do when he initiated his whistleblowing system? How can we have any confidence in an internal inquiry conducted by the Garda into its own activities when before it started the Commissioner said there was no basis to the allegations and before it concluded the Minister said that the solution should be to gag the whistleblowers? Will the Taoiseach tell us what legislative basis there is for gardaí to terminate penalty points? Is it not time to launch an internal inquiry? If not, who is guarding the gardaí?

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