Results 81-100 of 504 for garda speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Leaders' Questions (4 Apr 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...lost in the midst of all of this is that we are now at a crossroads such that the decisions that we take now will affect not only us and policing in the here and now, but generations to come. The Garda Commissioner's position is untenable. Sin é; that is the position. The commission and restructuring will amount to nothing if the Taoiseach is not prepared to take the first step in...

Leaders' Questions (1 Jun 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yesterday, the Committee of Public Accounts witnessed the toxic shambles that is senior Garda management. As we watched that theatre unfold, word came through of a shooting on Dorset Street in Dublin's north inner city, which claimed the life of a man. This ruthless murder was another shocking incident in broad daylight at the heart of a community caught in the grip of a criminal feud that...

Public Accounts Committee: Report on Reopening of Garda Stations: Acting Garda Commissioner (28 Sep 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: May I comment on it? I think it is a disgrace that political cherry-picking of Garda decisions happens. I asked the acting Garda Commissioner earlier about the setting of the high-level criteria and he confirmed that they were equally politically set by the Department. I also asked him earlier about the criteria for closing the stations down and who set those criteria and he could not...

Policing, Protests and Public Order: Statements (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...here, so let me start here. On any given day, you can walk from Heuston Station, you can come along the quays, you can go onto O’Connell Bridge and up onto Nassau Street, and you will not see a garda. When you turn the corner and come to this place, I bet you it is the first time you will see a uniformed garda. Equally, you can walk up O’Connell Street up to Parnell Square...

Protected Disclosures Bill 2013 [Seanad]: Second Stage (4 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: The other irony is that in the course of this controversy, the only names that have been bandied about, and with wild abandon, have been the names of the two Garda whistleblowers. They have had comments made on them during committee proceedings by, among others, the Garda Commissioner. My colleague Deputy Sean Fleming referred to some of those remarks. Yet we had to hear from the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (Resumed) (31 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: It goes on, "Mr. Kelly, who has also had sight of the historic files on the Garda College issues, alerted me to this as historically there is evidence to suggest previous efforts were made to prevent these matters moving towards the purview of the C&AG by at least one former Garda Commissioner." Can Mr. Kelly help us out here? Does he wish to comment? Is this an accurate reflection of...

Leaders' Questions (15 May 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...from the Department of Justice and Equality were present at the meeting? Was Brian Purcell there? Could he tell us what was discussed at the meeting? Was the taping of phone calls to and from Garda stations discussed? Was the fate of the Garda Commissioner discussed? Might that explain the marked reluctance of Brian Purcell to deal with the matter before the Oireachtas Joint Committee...

Leaders' Questions (23 Nov 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...could not remember the email but I do not accept that because the political controversy surrounding Maurice McCabe had already led to the resignation of a Minister for Justice and Equality and a Garda Commissioner. It centred on allegations against Sergeant McCabe of which the Tánaiste was aware for a whole year, so not reading or remembering this email is, frankly, not believable....

Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...This is an absolute mess. Thousands of unsafe convictions, 1 million fabricated breath tests and the serious questions that therefore arise over any data, statistics or information produced by An Garda Síochána. The entire controversy undermines the very integrity of An Garda Síochána and flies in the face of what citizens expect from their policing service. We have...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Departmental Programmes (23 Feb 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: ..., including the use of the electoral register. Most people are unaware of just how opaque andad hocjury selection for an inquest is. Reforms of the system have long been sought. Currently, the Garda maintains its own list of jurors for inquests who are, in turn, used multiple times. If the Garda cannot draw a jury from this list alone, the Garda can randomly seek out jurors. Indeed,...

Leaders' Questions (23 Nov 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: We have now spent over a week discussing this email, the e-mail which outlined the very malicious strategy designed by former Garda Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan and her legal team to destroy the reputation and the life of Sergeant Maurice McCabe. It seems to me that there was a conspiracy to ruin this honourable man and that members of An Garda Síochána and 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 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...

Order of Business (19 May 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Over the last number of days the Tánaiste has been asked about the O'Higgins report and the legal direction given by the Garda Commissioner on behalf of an Garda Síochána to her legal representatives. On each occasion she has steadfastly refused to answer very straightforward questions to which the public interest demands answers. I noted that yesterday she indicated that the...

Leaders' Questions (13 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: .... The Government has now placed a question mark over its ability to oversee impartial, accountable policing in this State. This is the gravest disservice which the Government can do to An Garda Síochána. Can the Tánaiste confirm that no agency of this State was authorised to put GSOC under surveillance? Can he categorically state that no arm of this State was authorised...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (13 Nov 2018)

Mary Lou McDonald: The programme "Whistleblower" was broadcast last night on RTÉ television. It illustrated again in some detail the horrific treatment of Maurice McCabe for daring to speak out about Garda malpractice in the Cavan Monaghan division. We are agreed that Maurice is a good and honourable man of incredible strength. He, his wife, Lorraine, and their family deserve not only our support and...

Ceisteanna - Questions: An Garda Síochána (30 Apr 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will be brief. No reform programme on earth will be of any value when there is such low morale in the ranks of An Garda Síochána and such a crisis in public confidence. That is the legacy of Fine Gael. Thirteen years on, people the length and breadth of this State do not feel safe. With the inner city, I do not have time. I could write books on it. There has been an abject...

Leaders' Questions (19 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: When the two whistleblowers on the penalty points scandal stepped forward into the public light, having been frustrated in their efforts to bring the matter to a conclusion within the Garda Síochána, the instinct of the Minister for Justice and Equality was to rubbish these two men. He did so publicly. He did, of course, allege that they refused to co-operate with internal Garda...

Leaders' Questions (3 Dec 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...complete his investigation? I know that he has made that request of the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton. Will he or the Taoiseach permit that? What of any Garda investigation? I know the Minister, Deputy Bruton, very belatedly passed on a witness statement to the Garda Bureau for Fraud Investigation. Will the Taoiseach be in contact with the...

Confidence in the Minister for Justice: Motion (5 Dec 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...drop-offs with the ever-present hum of menace, risk and an overriding lack of personal safety. Over the course of Fine Gael’s 12 years in government, people have been robbed of their safety. Garda stations have been closed or put on reduced hours. Community Garda numbers have been decimated. Gone are the days of the garda on the beat, which is the very bedrock of effective...

Leaders' Questions (12 Feb 2015)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...four people, again including a child, were arrested yesterday. Seventeen arrests have been made to date. It is reported that up to 33 people will be detained in the coming days. The scale of Garda resources deployed for these arrests stands in marked contrast to the lack of Garda response in many communities when families report serious crime. The number of gardaí used to arrest...