Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will take the Tánaiste back to the letter about the breath tests from the Garda to the Department of Justice and Equality in June 2016. The Tánaiste has said there was no indication given in that letter as to the scale of the problem. It is clear from what the Commissioner told me yesterday and from her public statements that it was not at that time known to Garda management either. We know from the director of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety that An Garda Síochána was informed in autumn 2015 - with respect to the sample checked by the bureau - that the actual figures were out by 100% vis-à-visthe figures on the PULSE system. There was a figure of some 400,000 on PULSE as opposed to 200,000 actual mouthpieces used.

The Garda had that information. It also knew from its own audit of the southern region that there was a very serious discrepancy. Is the Tánaiste really saying to the House that, in June 2016, knowing all of that information, the Garda Commissioner gave no indication whatsoever of the gravity of the problem the Garda was tackling and seeking to measure? That is an extraordinary position. Is it the case that the Tánaiste did not ask and the Commissioner did not tell her, even though they had been told of the scale of the problem at that stage?

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