Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when she was first informed of the serious discrepancies in the way in which the Garda recorded roadside alcohol tests and the reasons 14,700 persons convicted in the courts were prosecuted without fixed-charge notices first being issued; her plans to address these very serious matters; and if her attention has been drawn to any additional issues by the Garda Commissioner that have yet to be made public which may bring the Garda into further disrepute. [15900/17]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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When was the Tánaiste first informed of the serious discrepancies in the way in which the Garda recorded roadside alcohol tests and the reasons 14,700 persons convicted in the courts were prosecuted without fixed-charge notices first being issued? What are her plans to address these issues?

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I answered questions similar to these comprehensively during the course of the debate yesterday in the House over two hours, and what I said was confirmed at the committee meeting this morning.

An anonymous complaint was made to the Road Safety Authority by a person claiming to be a member of the Garda Reserve in the western region, outlining a number of issues, including the operation of the mandatory alcohol testing, MAT, checkpoints. The Road Safety Authority, RSA, forwarded the correspondence to the then Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, who wrote to the Garda Commissioner in April 2014. He copied that correspondence and the letter to the Commissioner to the then Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter, on 11 April 2014. Mr. Shatter immediately took the matter up and wrote to the Garda Commissioner on 16 April seeking a full report on the findings of an examination of the allegations.

An Garda Síochána indicated in a detailed response to my Department in May 2014, which I spoke about last night, that it had looked into the claims regarding MAT checkpoints in the western region and that it was satisfied that correct procedures were in place to account for MAT checkpoints that ultimately went ahead and those which did not proceed. The report indicated that further inquiries were to be conducted, and accordingly the Garda Commissioner was asked by my Department in August 2014 for an update. A further report on 8 January 2015 indicated that it was not possible to identify the author, but that was not really the point.

They had further consultation and liaison with the western region and the reserves around the country. I think the Garda Commissioner went into detail on that.

Following a submission of these reports to me on 21 January 2015, a letter issued at my request to the Garda Commissioner asking that the Commissioner consider whether there was scope for issuing any further instructions from Garda management regarding day to day operations in relation to MAT within An Garda Síochána.

I received a reply to that letter on 2 March 2015 which indicated that the assistant commissioner with responsibility for traffic had been directed to issue an instruction regarding monitoring the mechanisms in place surrounding the operation of MAT checkpoints, as opposed to the alcohol tests. On 10 June 2016, An Garda Síochána notified the Department that, following an audit of the southern region from 2009-2014, discrepancies had been identified in the breath test data held by An Garda Síochána on the PULSE system and, consequently, in the data published on the Garda website. That same month, An Garda Síochána directed that a national audit should take place of all the data recorded on the Garda PULSE system relating to the number of roadside breath tests conducted at MATs in each Garda division. This audit covered the period 1 January 2009 to 30 June 2016. Public information was given on this and a notice was published on An Garda Síochána's website in June 2016. In February this year, An Garda Síochána indicated to my Department that the full results of the breath test statistics audit would be available by the end of the second quarter of 2017. As the Deputy knows, we then had the press conference that gave the figure, which was when I heard for the first time about the serious discrepancies there.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

In so far as the issues relating to fixed charge notices, FCNs, are concerned, the Department was first made aware of several errors relating to the fixed charge processing system, FCPS, on 10 June 2016. In a press statement issued on the same date, An Garda Síochána confirmed that it had commenced a review of prosecutions in respect of all fixed charge offences. An Garda Síochána subsequently provided a further update to the Department on 14 March 2017 of its review of the errors surrounding fixed charge notices. The letter indicated that the review of all summonses issued in respect of fixed charge notices for the period of 1 January 2014 to 27 May 2016 had been completed and that, following consultation with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, a review of all such summonses dating back to the introduction of fixed charge notices in 2006 was under way.

As the Deputy is aware, the full statistics in regard to the FCN review for the period dating back to 2006 were presented by An Garda Síochána at its press conference on 23 March 2017. In addition, An Garda Síochána also presented at that press conference, for the first time, the figures on the huge disparity between the number of breath tests conducted at MAT checkpoints as per PULSE records, compared with the number of test kits used.

The Deputy will be aware that An Garda Síochána has confirmed that it has put solutions in place to deal with the procedural and practice issues that have been detected to ensure that such errors do not recur. Specifically, I have been assured by An Garda Síochána that a permanent and comprehensive information technology, IT, solution is now in place to cover the majority of FCPS issues identified and An Garda Síochána is satisfied that the errors that occurred cannot be repeated. In the case of breath tests or mandatory alcohol testing, MAT, I am informed that An Garda Síochána initially put in place new paper-based recording and verification processes and, in November 2016, a new specific data recording IT upgrade was installed on the Garda PULSE system. The net effect of the new IT upgrade was that personnel now have to record the serial number of the device used for each breath test plus the meter reading before and after the checkpoint was concluded. Data from the device is now used to verify the total number of breath tests conducted at each checkpoint.

In so far as the 14,700 people convicted of road traffic offences in court following the incorrect issuing of a summons are concerned, An Garda Síochána has established a dedicated support helpline for members of the public with queries in relation to their cases. An Garda Síochána is also writing to all affected members of the public, explaining what has happened and outlining the solution to rectify the situation. An Garda Síochána has indicated that it has been advised by the Director of Public Prosecutions and Courts Service that these 14,700 cases must be brought back before the courts at Circuit Court level with a view to requesting that the erroneous convictions be set aside. An Garda Síochána has established a dedicated team to this end and is liaising with the Court Service to expedite this process. Members of the public affected by the road traffic enforcement errors referred to are requested to await the aforementioned correspondence from An Garda Síochána which will provide further clarification on the matter. I have raised these issues with the Garda Commissioner and the chairperson of the Policing Authority and have outlined my very serious concerns.

The Deputy will be aware that in addition to outlining the issues, how they had come to light, and the remedial steps taken so far, at her press conference on 27 March 2017, the Commissioner announced the restructuring of traffic policing with the creation of a new roads policing unit to be led by Assistant Commissioner Mick Finn; announced the creation of a dedicated team under newly-appointed Assistant Commissioner Michael O'Sullivan to investigate in detail the MATs issue, including with a view to identifying and holding responsible for their actions any Garda members, whether at junior, supervisory or management level, who acted improperly; and committed to forwarding the report of this investigation to the Policing Authority and Department of Justice and Equality when completed.

Assistant Commissioner Finn outlined new arrangements agreed this week with the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, MBRS, to the effect that body would supply An Garda Síochána with its data on breath testing devices on a quarterly basis, in order to ensure an independent benchmark against which Garda data can be measured. The MBRS will shortly be tendering for new breath testing equipment. New equipment, which is available in the marketplace has the capacity to record the time, GPS location and number of persons breath tested, and has the capacity to download the information automatically, reducing the chances of errors occurring in the data.

Notwithstanding any internal review, the Government believes that an external investigation into these two specific matters needs be carried out. The Government believes the level of public concern is so profound that it may now be time to conduct a thorough, comprehensive and independent root and branch review of An Garda Síochána. That is clearly a proposal that will require further detailed consideration by the Government. The Government also believes that any such proposal should command widespread support in the Oireachtas and accordingly be the subject of consultation with the Opposition, and ultimately approval by the Oireachtas.

The Garda Commissioner had already referred the breath test and FCN matters to the Policing Authority. The chairperson of the Policing Authority, Josephine Feehily, has confirmed that the authority will continue to examine these matters. The reason I prioritised and set up the authority was to shine a light on, and examine, issues such as these. Ms Feehily indicated that the Policing Authority would have an independent professional audit undertaken of the steps taken to resolve the issues; oversee the ongoing cultural audit of the Garda Síochána which is already being put in place and oversee the investigation being undertaken by Assistant Commissioner O'Sullivan. Ms Feehily also confirmed, as already announced, that the focus of its public meeting with the Garda Commissioner to be held on 27 April will be roads policing.

I share the many concerns voiced in recent days about the extent of the road traffic enforcement issues highlighted by An Garda Síochána and the numbers involved. The Garda Commissioner has given me her personal undertaking that all necessary steps will be taken to ensure that these errors cannot reoccur. I have emphasised to the Garda Commissioner that the practices that allowed breath test misreporting and FCN errors to happen within An Garda Síochána over many years need to be fully addressed and the new systems that she has put in place will need to be robust, tested and verified in the time ahead.

I am not aware of any further concerns relating to Garda practices and procedures, but I will continue to maintain close contact with the Garda Commissioner in relation to any and all issues requiring my attention.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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This area was comprehensively dealt with here for two hours although I am not sure if we got all the answers. It was also dealt with by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality this morning. I am still trying to grapple with the question of whether the Tánaiste could have confidence in a Garda Commissioner who did not inform her of the scale of the problem or the issue at hand prior to announcing it to the world in a press conference. Has the Tánaiste asked the Commissioner why it was done in that way, why she bypassed her and why she ignored what I presume is the usual protocol in respect of an issue of such great importance, where the Tánaiste would be informed by letter, e-mail or phone call? The Tánaiste said in the Dáil last Tuesday that she was left to find out, like the rest of us, from a report at a press conference. That is not the way to do business. Has she had any conversation as to how or why that came about?

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I met the Garda Commissioner and her team last Monday. I also met the chairperson of the Policing Authority and I have articulated my very serious concerns over the past week to her and in general about the extent of the road traffic enforcement issues highlighted by An Garda Síochána and the significant numbers involved. I am also very concerned about the confidence issues the public has in respect of An Garda Síochána. It is critical that confidence is restored. We depend on An Garda Síochána for the security of this State and to police it. Over the decades, it has faced many challenging issues of law and order. Many members of the public have interacted and will interact with An Garda Síochána in the context of road traffic enforcement. I also think today of the victims of road traffic accidents. One of the very disturbing points that has emerged as a result of this audit is that the number of people drinking and driving is double what we thought it was. There is an even greater challenge in respect of enforcement and dealing with that issue than we were aware of, although we were all concerned about that issue.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The falsification of these records is highly suspect and further facts will emerge I presume when the Tánaiste raises this matter with the Commissioner. Given that the Tánaiste says she was not aware and was as astonished as the rest of us, I hope she expressed her displeasure and admonished the Garda Síochána for the way in which it handled the release of these figures.

Separately, the Garda Commissioner suggested last week, although she now seems to be rowing back on this, that she was aware of other areas of Garda malpractice which would emerge in the future. In her conversation on Monday, was any hint given to the Tánaiste of where those malpractices were and of their scale or did the Commissioner present it, as she did at the committee meeting today, in such a way as to suggest that once one starts digging, one finds something? She seems to suggest that there is much more untoward activity in An Garda Síochána than she ever thought, which does not seem to show much confidence in her officers.

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Of course I raised that question with her because many colleagues in the House were asking me what precisely was meant by the fact that there could be other issues and I was concerned to know if she was referring to any specific area of concern. The information she gave me in reply was that it was by way of a more general concern or belief that other issues may emerge. Statistics and their reliability would be one of the key areas.

The Government and I have invested over €200 million in the information technology, IT, systems. We can see from what emerged at the committee meeting this morning and through this week that this area is very data rich. There is a huge issue with management of data and having appropriate systems. I am the first Minister to put together a committee with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice and Equality to make sure we give it the money to try to get the systems up to date. During the recession, it got no funds. We can see that one area of real concern is making sure An Garda Síochána has the ability to gather the data. The records it has had to go back over were paper-based. The development of the IT system is critical to managing policy and investigating crime and it is now in a better position to do that. It was general, as the Commissioner said this morning. I said when I replied to questions here on Tuesday that I was aware the audit would be coming out. I thought she might have been referring to that as well.