Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

This is an extraordinary answer. All of us in the Dáil are responsible to the citizens we serve in the State. The case I have raised is anonymous so the Minister of State actually can refer to it. Ministers refer to many specific cases regularly in this Chamber. The Minister of State is responsible for ensuring the Garda does its job properly. It is not the case that he can just sit on his hands and say it is somebody else's business. It is the responsibility of this Government to ensure citizens are protected.

Alice is a very brave woman, as is her sister, Ms H. They have been relentless in the pursuit of justice. They have been knocking on the doors of a great many agencies over the past two decades. They have had to do that because of responses similar to that the Minister of State has given here. Her name is well known to Tusla and in the local Garda station because of her persistent campaigning. At one point, she triggered a Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, investigation into the way her local Garda station handled her abuse case. At the same time as this investigation was under way, she was applying for a house. During the GSOC investigation, the Garda station under investigation told the local authority that Alice had broken the law. One presumes this would have had the negative effect of reducing the chances of her housing application being successful. The Garda has since said this was an error and apologised to Alice for providing the local authority with a fabricated and false record. I believe the Minister of State will agree that, when agents of the State who are meant to protect individuals and vet people properly admit they do not have documents within PULSE records and when they tell a local authority a lie regarding an individual's track record which could reduce his or her opportunity to get a local authority house, it is our responsibility. I would like the Minister of State to answer the question I asked him in the first section.

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