Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Much has been said in recent weeks about the public interest. GSOC commenced what it termed a public interest investigation into suspicions of surveillance of its offices. Last week a retired High Court judge was appointed by the Government to consider among other matters the decision of GSOC to withhold information about its investigation from the members of the public in whose name it had been initiated. Garda whistleblowers maintain they were prompted by the public interest in releasing information about Garda activities into the public domain. An eminent senior counsel has been asked by the Taoiseach to consider the whistleblowers' information and decide whether a public inquiry should be held in the public interest. These issues have raised four matters of significant public interest which must be given priority by the Department of Justice and Equality and the Government.

The first is the tragic murder of Silvia Roche Kelly in a hotel in Limerick. This woman's family need to know if her death was avoidable. The public need to know if Silvia Roche Kelly was a victim of errors in our policing system and, just as important, whether any errors were properly investigated and resolved. If the death of Silvia Roche Kelly happened because of Garda errors or misconduct that have not been resolved since her death, then tomorrow any one of us could be the next Silvia Roche Kelly.

The second issue of significant public interest is the management by the Garda of the abduction and assault of the Kells taxi driver, Mary Lynch. This woman is entitled to know why her assailant was released on bail without her account of the attack being made available to the courts. The public needs to be assured that an attack of that nature will be properly investigated in future by the Garda and that the attacker will be brought to justice. Women in particular need to feel safe while going about their daily business.

The third issue of significant public interest is the attempted abduction of a five year old girl by Jerry McGrath when he burgled a house in County Tipperary while on bail. The family of this young girl, who is no doubt seriously traumatised by the event, need to know why a dangerous criminal was out on the streets and not in prison. All parents and grandparents of five year old children throughout Ireland need to be assured that their children are safe from predators who would otherwise be in prison if the justice system had managed prior offences correctly.

The fourth issue of significant public interest is the bugging of the GSOC offices. The public need a strong authority for investigating complaints about the Garda. Gardaí need a strong authority for investigating complaints about the Garda. Any suggestion that GSOC is less than secure will undermine its authority. Any evidence that GSOC has been bugged calls into question the security of other organs of the State. This matter needs to be fully investigated in the public interest.

The fifth issue of significant public interest is connected to the other four. The Garda Síochána comprises of 13,000 members. I have said on several occasions that the vast majority of the men and women in our police force are decent honourable and upstanding members of Irish society. The vast majority of these gardaí are as appalled as everyone in the House at the mere thought that corrupt or incompetent gardaí contributed to the serious crimes I have described.

The public needs us to preserve what is good about our Garda force, while hunting out what is bad. It is in the public interest for the events discussed over recent weeks to lead to a better police force. I welcome the appointment of Mr. Justice John Cooke and Mr. Sean Guerin SC, and I look forward to the investigations they will conduct.

Just as important for the public interest in the future is the Government's decision to refer the Garda Síochána Act 2005 to the Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality for review. As Vice Chairman of that committee, my aim will be to see real change emerge from that review. I would like to see a stronger GSOC and a better Garda force result from much-needed changes to the legislation governing both bodies. That would be very much in the public interest.

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