Results 4,501-4,520 of 21,440 for speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Written Answers — Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Human Rights Issues (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: 46. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, who was due to visit Bahrain from May 8 - 15, had his trip cancelled by the Bahraini Government; if he is concerned by this development; and if he has raised it with the Bahraini Government. [23229/13]

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I welcome the Commissioner. It has been a long session. It is welcome that he is saying he hopes the Government will see its way to opening up recruitment. I hope the Government has an ear to this discussion. The Commissioner may want to have a spat with the Minister, seeing as he is on a roll, in respect of recruitment and the resources available to the Garda Síochána. To...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: It was as a result of a turn of events in Cavan-Monaghan. He said that at that point the investigation was under way and that the information was brought forward, as far as he was concerned, by anonymous sources. Is that a fair summation of the evidence he has given today?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is completely at odds with what the two gardaí say. They say that in March 2012 they informed the internal Garda confidential recipient and senior Garda management of what they saw as a malpractice or abuse of the system. They have also said that their names were attached to this allegation. They came forward in good faith and they went through the appropriate system and...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I wish to focus specifically on the two gardaí who came forward in respect of the quashing of these penalty points. Those two individuals clearly say that they brought this matter to the attention of the authorities in March 2012. They went directly to the confidential recipient within An Garda Síochána, as per procedure, and they attached their names to this matter from the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: That may well be.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Given that it is the case, it is still very inaccurate for the witness to say that the complaint or allegation was made anonymously.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The system knew. To say that the complaint was made anonymously implies that the two gardaí in some surreptitious manner forwarded these allegations and ran away from them. That is not the case. The two officers in question went through the appropriate procedure. They went to the confidential recipient and made the allegation. They are absolutely emphatic that at no stage did they...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: That is extraordinary. The individuals concerned are not at all hazy about the date or the detail. It was March 2012.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: No, it was March 2012. They went through the established channels. There was no management response. They saw nothing happening and, for that reason, these matters came into the public domain. That is their clear statement of the facts. They are concerned at the fact that they were not interviewed in the process of investigating these matters.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Earlier the Commissioner referred to December 2012.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Let me outline the difficulty I have with the way the Commissioner has portrayed the sequence of events. This is to leave aside the independence of the report, or even the outcome, because that has been fully ventilated. In Mr. Callinan's earlier contribution he painted a scenario in which a garda had been caught printing material that he says was being handed over to a Dáil Deputy in...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I understand why Mr. Callinan, as Garda Commissioner, would say that, but he is missing the fundamental point, namely, that although the matter was raised by the book and in an entirely appropriate manner within the structures of An Garda Síochána in March, nothing happened according to the two gardaí. There was no response. That is what triggered the public disclosure of the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am glad the Commissioner has made the distinction between confidential and anonymous disclosures.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: In this instance, they were confidential but not anonymous. How does the Commissioner account for the fact that several months passed without anything being done? Arguably nothing would have been done and there would not have been any report on this issue but for the fact that two officers brought this matter into the public domain.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: What will not be with the DPP and what rests with the Commissioner is the issue with the system he has within An Garda Síochána for confidential disclosures of this nature.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: How many such reports would the Commissioner have received in the past 18 months?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am not looking for the detail, just the quantity.

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Were there two, three, ten or a dozen?

Public Accounts Committee: 2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 26: Collection of Motor Taxation
Vote 20: An Garda Síochána (16 May 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: Why can the Commissioner not give a number?