Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With regard to extending it to two years, this looks as if another layer of bureaucracy is being created but the number of people who would not put in their complaint within one year, and who would do so between one year and two years, would be small. Our experience in talking to people, and having people come to us, has been that while section 84(2) allows GSOC to look at complaints that go outside the time period, those concerned have not had much success in this area. Part of the reason for this is that GSOC probably has too much on its plate. GSOC struggles to do as much as it would like with the resources available to it but it does not have enough staff to deal with all the challenges that face it. This would be an extra challenge. When someone makes a complaint that is 18 months old, there will continue to be tendency not to deal with it because of a lack or resources.

On the issue of public confidence, I can assure the Minister that despite all rumours to the contrary, we want to improve public confidence in GSOC and the Garda, not the other way around. However, if public confidence does not improve in time we will feel we have made a great effort in this regard but without a successful outcome. That is why we are so keen that the legislative changes that come in during the next 12 months are strong. We want to believe that our time was not wasted and that it was used effectively. If it turns out that in 12 months time we are still unhappy people might think that we like to give out simply because we get attention for it. However, if there is an improvement we will feel good that we made some input into it. It will not all be our doing but it would be good to think we had some input and that we did change things for the better. I assure the Minister we are working to a point where the public will be able to have greater confidence not just in An Garda Síochána but also in GSOC.

See this speech in context