Results 1-20 of 20 for gsoc speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Fatal Road Traffic Collision in County Monaghan in 2011: Statements (31 May 2018)

Mary Lou McDonald: I welcome Lucia and all the members of the O'Farrell family here today. Six years have passed since Lucia and Gemma O'Farrell submitted their first complaints to GSOC. They have waited all this time for a report that was to investigate in full the multitude of failings by the justice system before and after Shane was killed. We have read the GSOC report and are deeply concerned at its...

Public Accounts Committee: 2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (13 Jul 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: They can go to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC.

Leaders' Questions (21 Jun 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...sought to muddy the waters in communications with the Department of Justice and Equality. As the Taoiseach knows, there were in excess of 50 bank accounts being operated at Templemore and it has now emerged that GSOC is conducting a serious fraud investigation into what has become known as the Cabra account. The Taoiseach is aware of all of these scandals. He should make no mistake that...

Questions on Promised Legislation (4 May 2017)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...with An Garda Síochána. He wrote to the Tánaiste eight times and to the Taoiseach four times. The Tánaiste did nothing on the case. He then made a complaint to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC. It falls very short of the kind of investigation this very disturbing and serious case demands. So far, the Taoiseach has given a deaf ear to the...

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 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 in which we know this is going to happen....

Leaders' Questions (8 May 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...Deputy Quinn, now accept that the resolute denial by former Minister, Deputy Shatter, of a catalogue of events, including the treatment of the whistleblowers, the controversy surrounding the bugging of GSOC, the bugging of telephone conversations to and from Garda stations, was the wrong position to take and that it was a bad call on the part of Government and, in particular, the Labour...

Leaders' Questions (8 May 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...does not accept any responsibility for the succession of debacles that have faced the policing and justice system in recent times; the appalling treatment of the whistleblowers; the appalling treatment of GSOC; the mishandling of the bugging controversy in Garda stations and the collapse in Garda morale and public confidence in the administration of justice. Why should he when the...

Confidence in the Minister for Justice and Equality; and Defence: Motion [Private Members] (1 Apr 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...of rank and file gardaí in their own senior management; shattered public confidence in protections for whistleblowers within an Garda Síochána; issues of public confidence around the operation of GSOC and public concerns about possible surveillance of the Garda ombudsman; public alarm at the prospect of illegal taping of telephone conversations to and from Garda stations;...

Garda Inspectorate Report on the Fixed Charge Processing System: Statements (26 Mar 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...as it is to everybody else in the country that he has no credibility when it comes to reform of An Garda Síochána. He has no credibility when it comes to protecting whistleblowers. Neither does he have credibility when he lauds GSOC and talks about the need to reform that body. The Minister has absolutely no credibility when he claims that it was Tuesday morning before he saw...

Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (19 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: A pattern has been established within the Government, both among members of the Cabinet and on the backbenches. The Minister has moved to minimise and trivialise the alleged bugging of the GSOC offices. He took precisely the same approach to the Garda whistleblowers. While that is his form, he does not and did not act alone because it is now clear that the Alan Shatter approach to the...

Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (19 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...public domain suggesting the office of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission may have been bugged. This is a very serious matter. Furthermore, and in the public domain also, is a concern the offices of GSOC may have been bugged by An Garda Síochána, whether sanctioned or otherwise. This brings public concerns to a whole new level. I was glad to hear the Minister...

Leaders' Questions (19 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: -----at playing down, setting aside or even whitewashing issues in respect of GSOC.

Leaders' Questions (19 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...regardless, as do all members of Fine Gael and Labour. This causes much public bewilderment. The same Minister is now charged with drawing up the terms of reference for the review into what happened in GSOC, the bugging of the offices of those that police the police. Yesterday evening, the Minister came to the House to tell us there is no evidence of any surveillance on those offices....

Leaders' Questions (19 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: I suggest that the Taoiseach relieves Deputy Shatter of his duties. With regard to the most serious allegation, that of bugging of the GSOC offices, I suggest the Taoiseach does the right thing at this point and uses the legislation available to him to establish, as a matter of urgency, a fully independent and functioning committee of investigation.

Leaders' Questions (18 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...members of the public with that approach? The Minister, Deputy Shatter, has been deliberately evasive and has used tactics deliberately to distract attention from the issues at play in respect of this GSOC debacle. He has done that consistently and all of us, not only here but in the wider public, know that. Why leave the terms of reference in his hands? Why ask that inquiry to report...

Leaders' Questions (18 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...information on the matter and it is on the record that the Minister was less than forthcoming in his account to the Dáil. His account of matters did not tally with the document he received from GSOC. I ask the Taoiseach his response to that matter and what he intends to do about it. We need clarity on the proposed inquiry. All we know thus far is that it will involve the...

Leaders' Questions (13 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: Following the evidence of the chairman of GSOC to the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions yesterday it has become evident that the Government has sought to mislead citizens about the bugging controversy. Let us be clear. To avoid surveillance, members of a Government oversight agency were forced to meet in cafés rather than hold meetings in their offices and to...

Leaders' Questions (13 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...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 to put the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission under surveillance? Can the...

Order of Business (12 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Taoiseach has been given two opportunities to correct the record of the Dáil. I now invite him for a third time to do so. The clear implication of what he has said and restated in respect of GSOC is that it was not in compliance with the law. That is not true.

Order of Business (12 Feb 2014)

Mary Lou McDonald: The Taoiseach will need to do it at some stage. I do not know what his game is but it is not helpful to GSOC to insinuate and repeatedly state it acted outside the law.