Results 101-120 of 504 for garda speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Leaders' Questions (19 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...in public view. It is astonishing that the Labour Party and Fine Gael are to be allowed to be complicit in Alan Shatter's activities, which are aimed at undermining whistleblowers within An Garda Síochána and burying any controversy arising in respect of malpractice by An Garda Síochána. In this particular instance, it is a most serious allegation of potential bugging...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (2 Oct 2019)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...crime and criminality but also zero tolerance for poverty, exclusion and the scourge of addiction. On that point we agree. It is beyond explanation that we are still waiting for Fitzgibbon Street Garda station to be reopened when it is located in the area with the highest crime rate in the State. Frankly, it is beyond belief that, in June, the Government closed the community policing...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...the Minister, Deputy Cowen, needs to come before the Dáil to make a statement and to take questions. A senior Cabinet Minister challenging the accuracy or truthfulness of the PULSE records of the Garda is a very serious matter. A senior Cabinet Minister attempting to evade a Garda checkpoint while behind the wheel of a car and having consumed alcohol is a very serious matter. These...

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

Mary Lou McDonald: ...Dublin was deserted; because the Government has failed. As for Fine Gael in government, here are the stats for you. I know you are keen on numbers, Darragh. Since 2009, you have closed 130 Garda stations. You have cut Garda numbers by 450 in Dublin. Despite all your promises about law and order, we have fewer gardaí on the beat now than we had in 2009. This is despite an...

Leaders' Questions (28 Mar 2013)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Tánaiste and I know that morale among gardaí is at an all-time low. They are deeply disillusioned at the Government's cutback agenda, dressed up with labels such as smart policing and efficiencies. Up to 140 Garda stations have been closed over the past 18 months. The number of Garda vehicles and personnel has been significantly reduced. This has had an effect in urban areas...

Business of Dáil (5 May 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yesterday, I raised the issue of statements on crime and Garda resourcing, and I am pleased to see that we are having those statements and that debate today. It is, however, very disappointing and inexplicable that mental health and statements on the Irish language got written out of the schedule. It does not make any sense to do that and then to ask the House to rise at 4.30 p.m. I put it...

Leaders' Questions (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: Yesterday and again today, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, expressed continued confidence in the Garda Commissioner. The Tánaiste does so in the wake of damning documentation presented by the head of Garda human resources, Mr. John Barrett, to the Committee of Public Accounts. This documentation substantiates Mr. Barrett's contradiction of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Management of Fixed Charge Notice System (23 Jan 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...an undefined process he will not share with us and the assistant commissioner reported back to him in December. Meanwhile, the Comptroller and Auditor General had contact from a member of An Garda Síochána, the CEO of the Road Safety Authority had contact from a member of An Garda Síochána, and Members of the Oireachtas were furnished with information in respect of...

An Garda Síochána: Statements (28 Mar 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...tests. There is one thing the Tánaiste could do that would more than anything restore public confidence and send a very clear message that there is accountability, namely, she could call the Garda Commissioner to account. Her failure and the Government's failure to do that is, as I said earlier, an absolute dereliction of their duty. All of the Tánaiste's fine words about...

Leaders' Questions (27 Jun 2018)

Mary Lou McDonald: I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that in order to bring about that radical transformation of policing, the new Garda Commissioner must have public confidence and that is what I am asking the Taoiseach about. Yesterday I raised with him the case of Pat Finucane. Many times we have raised incidents, not least the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, where British state collusion was writ large....

Leaders’ Questions (22 Nov 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...precisely to protect her and her Government in this saga. The email, which the Tánaiste claims she forgets reading, plainly sets out a deliberate and cynical strategy on the part of the former Garda Commissioner, Nóirín O'Sullivan, to undermine and attack the credibility of Maurice McCabe. It is also clear that the Tánaiste was made aware that the Garda legal team...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriations Account (Resumed)
Vote 24 - Justice and Equality (Resumed)
Chapter 6 - Procurement and Management of Contracts for Direct Provision (Resumed) (11 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ..." element to this. We accept that these are established matters of fact in this report. I would appreciate if the witness could come back with the facts on this situation. Section 41 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 obliges the Commissioner to inform the Minister and the Secretary General of the Department in a whole range of different categories. These are not optional. One...

Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Select Sub-Committee on Public Expenditure and Reform: Protected Disclosures Bill 2013: Committee Stage (14 May 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I think everybody is of one mind on this issue. I think this has been the case for the past number of months, although it was belated in respect of Sergeant McCabe and former Garda John Wilson. We can find ourselves in a situation in which GSOC needs to be strengthened. That is not within the gift of this committee - or, indeed, the Minister - so it places us in a slightly unusual position...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Economic Growth (14 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...with the issues regarding the Minister, Deputy Cowen? Is that the mechanism the Taoiseach uses to brief his partners in Government on all of the serious issues arising, including the contested Garda PULSE records that suggest the Minister sought to evade a Garda checkpoint? The Taoiseach has said the co-ordination committee involves not only the leaders but the Secretary Generals of...

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) (20 Jun 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...excoriating in respect of Mr. Barrett. I think Ms O'Sullivan would recognise that the language is pretty choice and dramatic. The interesting thing is that the title of the letter sent is "Re Garda Síochána Act section 41 - Garda College". I find it very interesting that Mr. Culhane is having a right go at Mr. Barrett, up to and including suggesting that he may have broken the...

Crime: Statements (5 May 2016)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...ongoing issues and, as the Minister has acknowledged, they are a source of considerable distress and fear nationwide. This has been highlighted starkly in rural Ireland in recent months and years as Garda stations have been closed, Garda numbers have fallen and fear has been raised across the community. I acknowledge that this is a general problem across society and across the State. ...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (15 Jul 2020)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...accepted an apology from the then Minister, Deputy Cowen, which we all, including myself, believe was absolutely genuine. The Taoiseach, however, also chose to stand by someone who was challenging a Garda record and account and who had sought to avoid a Garda checkpoint according to that account. He allowed him to give an incomplete statement to the Dáil and he failed to act for a...

Leaders' Questions (15 May 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ..., I wish to step back a couple of weeks to revisit the account of events given by An Taoiseach in respect of his knowledge of the revelations of the practice of taping phone calls to and from Garda stations. Those matters are the subject of a separate commission of investigation led by Mr. Justice Fennelly. An Taoiseach has stated on the public record that he was first informed of the...

Leaders' Questions (16 Feb 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...Seán Canney, Kevin Boxer Moran and Finian McGrath, for keeping Deputy Enda Kenny, an incredibly incompetent Taoiseach, in power? We know the Independents were promised some unspecified review of Garda operations by international experts, something that already falls within the remit of the Garda Inspectorate. However, there is a suspicion that more was offered to the Independent...

Appointment of Taoiseach and Nomination of Members of Government (14 Jun 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...the Government, that is too bad, because Sinn Féin makes no apologies for the political stances it takes. The Minister, Deputy Flanagan assumes the justice portfolio. He should be clear that the position of the Garda Commissioner is no longer tenable and has not been so for a significant period of time. He should be clear that he cannot credibly allow the culture of impunity within...