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

I have the transcript of what took place when the Garda Ombudsman appeared before the Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions. In response to a question raised, Carmel Foley of the GSOC addressed the matter and made references that correspond with what I said. She said that they were conscious that the whistleblower was a serving Garda and, therefore, they could not under the Act deem a complaint from him admissible. Of course they could not, and that was, unfortunately, the position with regard to the 2005 legislation and the creation of the confidential recipient. The legislation removed complaints from serving members of An Garda Síochána from the remit of GSOC and the 2007 provision sought to provide an alternative mechanism. I did not want to jump to conclusions about this at an early stage as Minister but I think it has been proved that the confidential recipient system does not work. It is unfair to those who raise issues of complaint and to the gardaí themselves because where the Garda fully and properly investigates a matter it is still open to question. I said all along that in the context of the fixed charge ticket issue, there was a need to tighten up on procedures and to ensure that the practice that was supposed to be followed was followed and that the decisions ultimately made even when the practice was appropriate were justified. I described some of those decisions as exotic, and deliberately so, because I would question whether proper procedures had been followed.

In the context of dealing with this overall issue, a legislative change is of importance, so that where serious allegations are made by serving members of An Garda Síochána, the GSOC can investigate them, there is no issue as to the independence of the investigation and the matter is dealt with once and for all. In the context of the issue we are dealing with, a range of allegations were investigated by Assistant Commissioner John O'Mahony which were referred to the Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality and the Garda Inspectorate. Since then, a series of additional allegations have been made. These are rolling, never-ending allegations, which is why it is appropriate that, as Deputy Collins said, we bring this matter to a conclusion where no further questions arise. That is why it was appropriate to refer it to the GSOC. I will come back to the issue of members of the Committee of Public Accounts.

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