Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have put it on the public record that I received a letter in June 2016, outlining that some issues had arisen that the Garda was examining what it needed to do and it was doing a full audit that would be completed in the second quarter of this year. That was the information I had. My Department continued to be in contact with the Garda on when the final audit would be available.

Of course, I am not satisfied that the Garda and the Commissioner have not been in a position to outline why this happened. We have to get to the bottom of this and find out why it happened. What has been happening since last year is that the full audit has been done. Regarding the comparison with the Medical Bureau of Road Safety’s figures, as I understand from Professor Cusack yesterday and from the head of traffic, the comparison between the two sets of figures was only possible when the Garda had its full audit. When the full audit of Garda figures and the bureau’s figures were compared, the discrepancy became completely obvious. It was not obvious to An Garda Síochána, as it has said, until that point. I certainly was not aware of it. I heard the figure of 1 million for the first time like other people at the press conference.

See this speech in context