Results 1-20 of 102 for gsoc segment:8228857

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Catherine Murphy: ...get a note on what has been the longest investigation? We want to see whether this system is working efficiently and if there are sufficient resources to do the job. With the additional powers, GSOC will be able to take on a larger caseload. In the absence of such powers now, GSOC is restricted. When does GSOC anticipate those powers and resources will be in place? Is there a timeline...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Neasa Hourigan: When Ms Logan says that GSOC will make a decision can she outline what that looks like? How many people are in a room? Who is making that decision? What is the process within GSOC? I know GSOC goes to the DPP afterwards.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Matt Carthy: I have to say I do not buy that. GSOC carried out the investigations. GSOC concluded two reports. In respect of the section 101 report, the family have received summaries, not the full report. My understanding is that the same is the case for the section 97 report. These are reports in GSOC's possession. Whatever Judge Haughton is doing in relation to his scoping inquiry, he needs to be...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Brian Stanley: Okay. GSOC is very much dependent on the co-operation of the Garda. I do not want to go back into the case because the GSOC representatives went through it at length with Deputy Carthy, but because GSOC depends on that level of co-operation and assistance from An Garda Síochána, it would seem that it is possible in some cases for the hands of its staff to be tied. In other words,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I welcome the witnesses. My question is on staffing. In 2019, GSOC had 125 members of staff. This has increased to 127. GSOC will have new powers. After a debate in the Dáil on GSOC, we received a letter from the then chair outlining some issues with capacity and staffing. Do the witnesses anticipate there will be significant additional resources to deal with the new powers? Is...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: It is difficult for us to comment on specific cases, particularly ones that are active, and what we like to do is comment on patterns that we see. In general, the delay in GSOC's ability to investigate often has a compounding impact on people who perceive that they are victims. In some cases, it will be proved that they were victims. It is hard to say but sometimes people would say that...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

James O'Connor: It is fascinating when looking at GSOC accounts to see the amount of money that is spent on staffing proportional to the operations of GSOC as an organisation. When it comes to the costings of undertaking the work GSOC is supposed to be doing, is there an issue of parity when it comes to that? Looking at the charts available to the Committee of Public Accounts, a very significant portion,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

James O'Connor: ...with oversight of the Garda. The Garda Commissioner was before the committee last week and a number of important issues were raised with him. Respecting the separation between the Garda and GSOC arose. "Without referring to any specific case, there is a degree of concern about the culture of leaking within the Garda. There seem to be a consistent issue with leaking within the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Brian Stanley: It is generally accepted by An Garda Síochána. That is good. I do not expect the witnesses from GSOC to comment on the Garda dispute because it is outside their remit but in terms of its effect on the work of GSOC, on 20 March 2022, a total of 355 cases were referred to An Garda Síochána - this is from GSOC's briefing - under section 94(1), that is, unsupervised. There...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: ...not acceptable; we all are saying it is not acceptable. It is the Government's job to try to resolve problems. As a Government Deputy, I am asking how we resolve the problem, how many more staff GSOC needs and what requests it has made to the Department. It is hard to accept the view that it is unacceptable to have these delays without seeing GSOC respond and say it needs X number of...

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Colm Burke: I refer to complaints that GSOC is investigating. Is there any litigation pending where applications have been made to restrict GSOC from carrying out an investigation?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Matt Carthy: After all of that time in terms of the amount of work that GSOC has put in, is Mr. Hume satisfied that there was an appropriate outcome at the end of all GSOC's efforts and the expenditure that was invested in this case?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Mr. Hugh Hume: It is not what GSOC feels about the thing. There are far more important people's concerns in this investigation than GSOC's concerns, in terms of the family themselves and their feeling of hurt. Clearly, we work to try to deliver the best and fairest result for everyone.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Matt Carthy: Is there a preclusion on GSOC providing information to any other third party that has been provided to Judge Haughton? Is it the case that the scoping inquiry has said that once GSOC provides it with that information, it cannot then provide it to another person?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Paul McAuliffe: I have the responsibility of attending two committees at the same time and I always wonder how I am meant to do that. If I missed GSOC's answer, I apologise. I heard that 5% of overall complaints were fully investigated. GSOC might clarify that figure for me.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Catherine Murphy: I am not looking for details of protected disclosures but has GSOC got such disclosures? Do they come internally from GSOC or from An Garda Síochána? What tends to be the profile?

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Brian Stanley: I thank Mr. Justice MacCabe for that offer. I acknowledge we received correspondence from GSOC in July and December and more recently, and it is normally informative and clear. I thank GSOC for that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Mr. Justice Rory MacCabe: All I can tell the Deputy is that Judge Haughton made 114 requests for information from GSOC. GSOC, in October last, responded to these. Our legal unit is liaising with Judge Haughton at present. I would like to be able to give the Deputy a more positive response than that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Mr. Hugh Hume: It was a combination of all of those factors. There was information from the Minister and the family had come to GSOC as well. It is quite a while back and I was not in the office at the time, but my understanding is those all came from a number of different sources and GSOC brought them together into one cohesive investigation, which included the 56 allegations.

Public Accounts Committee: 2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (7 Apr 2022)

Colm Burke: After an investigation has started are there delays in getting information from the Garda Síochána? Could a better system be in place to ensure GSOC gets information in a timely manner? For argument's sake, simple issues can arise such as someone being out on sick leave or someone being seconded to a different location or role. Does this affect GSOC getting information when it...