Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The term "As soon as practicable" does not deliver what we want here. I was chairing the public oversight committee when the Garda Ombudsman Commissioners came before us to speak to their seven- or eight-page summary of the report into the Kieran Boylan affair. I appreciate that protocols are in place and that levels of co-operation have improved, but what they revealed then was disturbing. Also disturbing was their decision to publish a seven- or eight-page summary of their findings in the media. They appeared on RTE's "Prime Time" and they appeared before our committee. According to whatever understandings were in place at that time, documents were to be given within 30 days. That was the understanding. In one case, after over four years, one document was never given to them. I believe that senior members of An Garda Síochána stymied their investigation. I know it went to the DPP and that there were no charges, but no member of the public can look at the evidence.

The allegations could not have been more serious to the effect that somebody who was charged with possession of €1.3 million worth of drugs and was visiting grief and misery on communities in this State had charges dropped. It was alleged that he was an informer on behalf of some within An Garda Síochána and was being handled off the books, and that other people were being set up. Some of the senior gardaí who were blocking that information and documentation being given to GSOC were under scrutiny. That was an example of why the requirement to hand over documentation within 30 days must be on a legislative, statutory footing, rather than some friendly protocol or something that was agreed.

I am aware that much has changed and I welcome many of the reforms that are on the way, and that more power is given to the independent policing authority here. My fear is that the system, even though it uses nice language, always tries to resist real change, real accountability and real equality in relationships. I would like to have one Garda Ombudsman, but we need a situation where the three Garda Ombudsman Commissioners are absolutely equal in the eyes of the law with the Garda Commissioner and are given the same powers and ability to hold the Garda to account. The Kieran Boylan affair, was scandalous. Saying it was scandalous does not even do justice to the appalling lack of co-operation and procrastination, stalling and blockage by senior members of An Garda Síochána into a matter the Garda Ombudsman Commissioners themselves felt they needed to investigate.

These actions held back justice. While I accept that protocols have been introduced in the meantime, we need more than protocols. We must send a clear message in legislation that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and the Garda Commissioner have equal status and must have the powers needed to do their jobs.

I hope the Minister, having declined to accept previous amendments, will accept this amendment and the timeframe of 30 days. Anyone following this debate, particularly those who have reflected on the Kieran Boylan affair, will agree that we need something more than protocols and language such as the phrase "as soon as is practicable". A clearly defined deadline is required and there must be serious repercussions when it is not met.

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