Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have watched these debates as a legislator and lawyer with much interest. I am always interested in how the Garda Síochána can be improved and its efficacy enhanced. My grandfather - my father's father - was a member of An Garda Síochána so I have particular affinity to it and enormous respect for the work it does on a daily basis. However, no organ of the State should be immune from criticism, whether it is constructive or otherwise. We owe it to the public and victims of crime to have a responsive and efficient police force that can investigate crimes properly. In this particular instance, we owe most of our respect and attention to the victims in this report. It is their particular experience of crime and interactions with An Garda Síochána that are most deserving of our focus. I am pleased the O'Higgins report has made clear that both my former constituency colleague, former Deputy Alan Shatter, and the Garda Commissioner acted appropriately. However, the focus of this report must be how we can better serve victims of crime.

The central issues have been ignored by many contributors in this House and my focus will be on victims and procedural errors in the investigations. There are eight offences at the core of the report, three of which are of a very grave nature and all of which happened in east Cavan over ten months in 2007. There was an assault on a bus in February, an assault at a hotel in April, an assault on a taxi driver in April by a man who subsequently murdered a woman in Limerick, an assault in May in a pub in Bailieborough, the doctoring of vinegar in a café in Bailieborough in August with potential health consequences, an assault in September on a 17 year old girl in Cootehill, the reporting of approximately 35 offences occurring over a previous year in September by a paedophile priest, including that involving a 15 year old youth and an assault by a motorist who ran over three people in December, which caused injury to those victims. Of those eight offences, only two resulted in convictions, both involving the party pleading guilty.

I do not believe many of these crimes were minor, and as I stated, three were of a very grave nature. Those which were minor could have had very serious consequences. I am sure some of the victims still bear the emotional and physical scars from these events. There is a common thread running through the report of not being well served by the Garda. It would be of better service to the victims for Garda Commissioner O'Sullivan to address if and where significant changes have happened. A number of the recommendations in the report are focused on that.

Some Members are under the misapprehension that a lack of resources was an issue at the time. We must remember that in 2007, in theory at least, it was a time of plenty, before the economy crashed. Garda strength stood at 14,000 members. We were not in government at the time but we have responded to protect whistleblowers. The focus must also be on protecting the victims.

The issues repeated consistently in the report concern proper investigation. We know what they are and they include inadequate note-taking; taking frequently undated statements from a random sample of relevant witnesses; recording potentially serious offences in PULSE as minor; poor practices with available CCTV; mislaying vital evidence, specifically the computer in a sex abuse case; citing the wrong sections in charges and search warrants; and poor supervision. Have these areas been examined or will they be examined? How could we improve these areas? As we know, organisations like Victim Support and Advic represent the needs of families of victims of homicide and have repeatedly stressed the need for victims to be listened to and for proper procedures to be followed in investigations. These are the core concerns of the O'Higgins report.

I have raised these matters in parliamentary questions and I look forward to them being addressed. It would be very useful to understand what steps have been taken to address these general issues. As a citizen, I hope these issues are historic and that victim concern and proper process are now central to how the Garda operates. I look forward to examining how we can respond better to victims of crime. We owe them at least that.

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