Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not know whether the Minister is playing dumb or he just does not get it. He will not escape behind this and this will haunt him unless he starts dealing with it properly.

The Minister states GSOC needs time. It is the fifth year since this complaint was made. It involves gardaí involved in the heroin trade in the Minister's constituency. One young man has died - possibly two - as a result of that heroin supply. A garda remains suspended at present for colluding with criminals but nobody has been charged or arrested.

There was an internal Garda investigation, as the Minister will be aware. Subsequently, GSOC was given the file, which was delayed and disrupted by the Garda for five months. The Minister knows GSOC has concluded that investigation but it cannot publish its findings because the Garda states it has not finished its investigation. I am seriously wondering is this biding for time a tactic to allow the clock to be wound down until the garda at the centre of this or the chief superintendent behind him reaches retirement age, which is coming up in the next year and a half.

We are all in favour of impartial investigations but a process which does not deliver in its fifth year is disgraceful, considering the very serious allegations at the heart of this.

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