Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As somebody who worked very closely with the Taoiseach over five years, I can truly say that his responses to date on this matter are entirely inadequate. The facts need repeating, although they have been mentioned time and again. From 2006 to 2016, a total of 146,865 District Court summonses were issued in error and 14,700 of our citizens were brought before the courts and wrongly convicted. Some of them were told they were telling lies when they said they did not actually receive a summons. One should think of the impact that would have on their livelihood and families. All of this now has to be undone.

If that was not bad enough, there were 1 million wrongly recorded breath tests, the data of which informed our entire policing and road traffic policies over the years but were based on falsehoods. The chief executive of the Road Safety Authority has said the absence of credible and reliable enforcement metrics makes it almost impossible to evaluate and measure the effectiveness of road safety interventions. That is a critical issue in saving lives. The Road Safety Authority is not the only one concerned. Today, Professor Denis Cusack of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety clearly said that both in 2014 and August 2015, the Garda was alerted to the significant discrepancies between the amount of equipment used and the amount of breath tests recorded.

I listened carefully to the Taoiseach's response. He said we are going to have another in-depth root and branch review of An Garda Síochána. That was the response of the Independent Alliance to the last crisis a few weeks ago. That was its bolt-in to that. Of course, we have heard nothing of it since.

We have a Garda authority. I agree with the Taoiseach profoundly on this. Let us have political consensus to have fundamental reform implemented now. Is it good that nobody takes accountability for what we know, namely, that 14,700 of our citizens were wrongly convicted, 147,000-odd summonses were wrongly issued and 1 million breath tests were wrongly recorded? Is nobody to be accountable, responsible or answerable for that? Is it acceptable to the Taoiseach that we are going to have a three-month period now when the people who were in charge will review their own performance and tell us what happened, although they have been seised of this in some shape or form for three years?

See this speech in context