Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I commend the report of the Garda Inspectorate, which clearly vindicates the assertions of the whistleblowers. I welcome the Minister's apology to the whistleblowers and correction of the record in this House about their alleged non-compliance with the investigation, but the fact of the matter was that they were not asked. I am glad that the Minister has apologised to the former Garda Wilson and Sergeant McCabe in this instance.

The Government decision to establish an independent Garda board is pertinent and important. There is no doubt that this has been a long-established policy of the Labour Party. It did not make it into the programme for Government but, as my colleague Deputy Nolan stated, I am glad that it has now made its way into Cabinet and that we have had a decision on it.

The past couple of weeks and months have shaken the public in terms of how justice is administered in this country. The vast majority of people have little interaction with the Garda. They are law-abiding persons who go about their business and, for whatever reason, never come to the attention of the Garda. However, we are human and fallible and sometimes our foot is on the accelerator in the car and we go too fast. The one time we have any interaction with the Garda is when penalty points are being given out.

Penalty points were introduced in this country to improve the standard of road safety because for far too long we had lost too many young lives to speeding and careless driving. What has shaken the public in all of this scandal is the knowledge of that one time when most people interact with the Garda, which is when they receive penalty points. The general assertion is that everybody is equal before the eyes of the law. However, in this instance it has been clearly shown that factors such as celebrity, membership of elite groups and political status meant that some were more equal than others. I for one am really glad that this report has come out and shown the way in which justice was being administered and the fact that there were abuses of the system.

For the vast majority of people, their interactions with the Garda Síochána are at that level.

I will move on to the news that has broken over the past 24 hours in respect of the alleged illegal taping of conversations in Garda stations. The Garda station in Waterford was one of them, a matter documented in court in respect of the conviction of gardaí. Going back to 2002, prior to the establishment of GSOC, reports of detection rates in Waterford Garda stations were falsely documented. A report from the RTE website states:

A long-awaited report on an internal Garda investigation into crime detection rates in the Waterford Garda Division has still not been completed, months after the initial allegations were made.

[I]t was claimed that some figures compiled in the Waterford Division were not accurate and that some recorded crimes were reported to have been detected, even though nobody had been charged with the offences.

The report states that Waterford Garda division was reported to have considered crimes to have been detected even though no conviction or court proceedings had taken place. If gardaí were satisfied that they knew who was responsible, that was the end of it and it was considered detected. The report also states:

An internal Garda inquiry was set up to investigate the matter and to give an exact definition of what had or had not been "detected".

A Garda spokesperson said today that the report still had not been finalised and there was no indication as to when it would be completed.

The matter has not been resolved and I ask the Minister to examine this. We now have two allegations reported in public in respect of the conduct of the Garda Síochána in Waterford: the illegal recording of telephone calls and the misrepresentation of crime detection rates as far back as 2002. As a representative of constituents, I know that will shock the public, and we do not want to have poor relations between the Garda Síochána and members of the public. Even though the vast majority of us do not interact with the Garda Síochána, we need to know we are safe where we live and in our communities. I ask the Minister to take these points into consideration.

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