Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I remind the Deputy that he is a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. The two reports to which I referred were referred to that committee and it was open to that committee to hold hearings, call in An Garda Síochána and raise any questions it sought to raise arising out of those reports with other individuals. What the committee did was send the matter to the Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions. The Deputy is aware of that. It was my understanding that it was passed on to the committee of which Deputy Wallace is a member. This committee questioned GSOC about the matter and the response it got was the one I referenced. It did not go any further with that committee either.

I intend, as I announced, to bring forward new legislation to amend the 2005 Act. We have been conducting a review of this Act for the past nine months in terms of how matters work and where difficulties arise. The confidential recipient was a creature created by my predecessor in 2007 for serving members of the gardaí to make complaints of alleged misconduct that would effectively be furnished to An Garda Síochána itself to investigate. Time has proved that this is a defective procedure. It is my intention in the context of a series of amendments to address other issues raised by the Deputy that need to be addressed with regard to GSOC to confer on it a remit to deal with serious allegations of misconduct made by serving members of the force. Following the enactment of the amending Bill, I do not envisage that the office of confidential recipient will continue.

See this speech in context