Results 1-20 of 22 for gsoc segment:8219260

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

James O'Connor: ...Garda Síochána, there appears to be serious discrepancies depending on the level of controversy in some investigations. In particular, I would mention that the committee has been waiting for the GSOC investigation into the Garda training college. That has been going on for over five years. Is there any degree of clarity or closure coming to that? What progress has been made in...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: Representatives of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, will be before the committee next week. I call Deputy Munster who has ten minutes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Brian Stanley: Last year, GSOC wrote to the committee and set out a response to a number of issues that we raised with it. According to it, as a result of complaints received in 2020, 572 criminal investigations were opened, which contrasted with a figure of 485 in 2019. This could have major financial implications. In its response, GSOC also stated that its investigators had carried out non-criminal...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

.... The investigations may have been opened as criminal investigations only for the allegations not to be substantiated or the complainants not to give further information or even make complaints. GSOC would refer the more serious matters to us for us to consider whether suspensions were appropriate.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Mr. Drew Harris: It is difficult for me to provide the overall figure because those matters properly lie within GSOC's responsibility. We receive regular updates and reports if a matter enters the courts.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Matt Carthy: I welcome the Commissioner and his colleagues. I apologise for my absence; I was in the Dáil Chamber. GSOC will appear before us next week, but I want to get a sense from the Garda of how its co-ordination with GSOC operates in practice. Does the Garda have an assessment of the budgetary cost of its interactions with GSOC? Is that delineated in any way?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Matt Carthy: Does Dr. Coxon have an estimate for the number of human resource hours spent in engagements or interactions with GSOC?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Dr. Shawna Coxon: I will have to ask the Deputy to be more specific. What does he mean by "interactions"? For example, GSOC turns some investigations over to us. Is the Deputy looking for the number of hours we spend conducting investigations or is he looking for strict reporting mechanisms to GSOC? We do not track that. From a tracking perspective, we just have a couple of people who...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Matt Carthy: Does the Garda know the percentage of their time that superintendents and chief superintendents spend interacting with GSOC?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Dr. Shawna Coxon: No. The Deputy spoke about interacting, but there is actually not a great deal of interaction where GSOC is turning over an investigation. Does the Deputy mean the investigations themselves? They fall under GSOC but are given back to us.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Matt Carthy: I am referring to the industrial action that was in place from July of last year until this February. According to GSOC's correspondence with us, it had a substantial impact on the outworking of its investigations. I am trying to get a sense of how that arose and whether it was appropriate that industrial action was used in that way. Essentially, a group of workers implemented industrial...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Matt Carthy: ...were carrying out what were considered to be their core duties. Can we extrapolate from the industrial action that superintendents and chief superintendents do not consider their work on behalf of GSOC investigations to be a core part of their work?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Matt Carthy: Where GSOC issues findings or fines, in how many instances has the Commissioner revoked them?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Mr. Drew Harris: I cannot think of a time when I have ever revoked them. GSOC would make a determination in respect of disciplinary proceedings which would follow and I have not set aside any of those proceedings, that I am aware of.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Matt Carthy: ...over their handling of prosecutions against a Lithuanian driver who killed Shane O'Farrell.". Shane O'Farrell was a young man from my home town who was killed in a hit-and-run accident in 2011. The GSOC report on same took an inordinate amount of time and was very incomprehensive. The only substantial finding related to those findings of negligence but according to this newspaper...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Dr. Shawna Coxon: I am happy to get back to Deputy Carthy on that but GSOC does not make those recommendations. If it sets out a determination in terms of what should happen next and says that discipline should occur, for example, then it would come to the Garda Commissioner. There are inaccuracies in how that is described but I am quite happy to take it away, look into it and provide more...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Matt Carthy: Unfortunately, there is no current investigation because gardaí have completed their deliberations and GSOC has completed its deliberations. This event took place 11 years ago. The man who was driving the car that killed Shane O'Farrell should have been in prison at the time. He had been stopped in his car by gardaí about a half an hour before the incident. He was in breach of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

...given an indication as to timing. In effect, that report should provide a complete overview of all that happened within the various agencies, including An Garda Síochána, the Courts Service and GSOC. I await that report.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Mr. Drew Harris: In the first place, it would be a public complaint and that would then go to GSOC for investigation and determination. GSOC has a wide remit, not only in terms of discipline and crime investigations, but also the issuing of reports with recommendations to An Garda Síochána.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - An Garda Síochána (31 Mar 2022)

Matt Carthy: That goes back to my original point. If the gardaí concerned are able to assess that this does not form part of the Garda code and that their interactions with GSOC are not an integral part of their work, does Mr. Harris agree that there is scope for reform of GSOC to improve its ability to carry out investigations of this nature in a more timely and efficient manner?