Results 25,801-25,820 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: How does GSOC categorise them?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Does GSOC categorise what is alleged?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I have four questions, so I am looking for quite succinct responses. I refer to the 20 cases per caseload at present. Is there sanction to go beyond that and what was it at its highest? What is the ratio of support staff per investigator?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Is there sanction to go towards ten?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: GSOC has not got sanction to go beyond the caseload of 20.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Okay. What is the ratio of support staff per investigator?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: It is merely to get some sort of an idea.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We often get material in here and it is more like we are the public accountability committee rather than the Committee of Public Accounts. With the number of inadmissible complaints, I suspect that GSOC is maybe not completely understood by the public. Is there a public information campaign around that? It would strike me that if GSOC reduced the inadmissible cases, it may well be able to...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: GSOC is aware of that. In relation to the protection disclosures, as I want to go back to that, where did the majority of protected disclosures come from? Did they come from the gardaí themselves?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Does Mr. Hume know the ratio?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I will now ask about the non-pay element of GSOC's budget. Obviously, the bulk of that goes on the accommodation. GSOC has accommodation in Dublin and Cork. It is leased accommodation. In the event of there being sanction for additional staffing, will that accommodation be sufficient? Is it future-proofed and is there a break clause in it?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I want to go back to the types of admissible complaints. One of them is discourtesy. Presumably, that is the kind of thing that goes directly back to the Garda. Does GSOC then follow up to see that there is training to address some of the issues, or is that just something that is left exclusively to the Garda itself?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: On protected disclosures again, obviously when a case is closed and findings are made, you have to go back then, for example, when some issues have to be picked up by the Garda itself. What follow-through is there with regard to changes that would be made internally within the Garda? I do not understand where the relationship would be then in how it is picked up following the closure of a...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022 - Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I presume they share it with the Minister as well.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: The obvious one there is No. 3, Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board. That is obviously a conflict of interest. There was a previous case of another education and training board, ETB, which we are very well aware of, and it went beyond a conflict of interest. This is the kind of-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I would have thought this was something that ETBs were particularly conscious of in view of that example. Has this issue been addressed in the back and forth the Comptroller and Auditor General has with entities his office is auditing? What remedy have they put in place in that regard?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We had a discussion on the International Protection Office. I may not have been paying the kind of attention I should have but I had understood the accommodation for the International Protection Accommodation Services, IPAS, and temporary protection was going to be a kind of parallel discussion with that. Is this included as an issue for discussion? It hardly is when Tusla representatives...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: No. So we have not included that.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (8 Feb 2024)

Catherine Murphy: To be honest, it is about controls, how the process works, the amount of money, and the kinds of tenders that are being provided. I believe that several of us wanted to talk to the Department about this whole area.