Results 1-20 of 24 for gsoc segment:8241482

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

...that we publish their opening statements on the committee's website. Is that agreed? Agreed. On behalf of the committee, I welcome the witnesses from the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC. We have engaged with some of them before. I welcome Mr. Justice Rory MacCabe, chairperson, Commissioner Emily Logan, Commissioner Hugh Hume, and Ms Aileen Healy, director of...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Mr. Justice Rory MacCabe: I have been chairperson of GSOC since late January this year. As the Vice Chairman has indicated, I am joined today by my fellow commissioners Ms. Emily Logan and Mr. Hugh Hume, who joined GSOC in February last year. Mr. Hume has a background in policing at a senior level in the Police Service of Northern Ireland, PSNI, and served as deputy chief inspector in the...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Vice Chairman: I thank Mr. Justice MacCabe for his opening remarks and his invitation. We will come back to him on that. His opening statement is a very good summary of the work that GSOC has been involved in over recent years and, particularly under Mr. Justice MacCabe's stewardship, over recent months. I will open up questioning from committee members. Some are attending online and...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Jerry Buttimer: I welcome our witnesses and thank Mr. Justice MacCabe for his contribution. I thank GSOC for the work it is doing. Indeed, I pay tribute to the work done by members of An Garda Síochána during the Covid period, when they were at the forefront of our State's response to Covid-19. Very often they had to perform tasks that in ordinary times they would not dream of doing. I thank...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

...hand and whether any of them had been around for a long time. Basically, I asked if there were any unexploded bombs around of which I needed to be aware. I was then briefed by different groups in GSOC. Listening to them, I asked how it was taking so long to close cases. There were cases that may have been going on for two or three years. I asked how it was possible they were not...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Jerry Buttimer: ...of cases to which Mr. Justice MacCabe referred, and Ms Healy wrote in correspondence about the increased complexity of many cases brought to the ombudsman's attention, raises serious concerns about GSOC's capacity to deal with them. Is there a role for us as a committee to advocate with the Department and the Minister in Government on GSOC's behalf?

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

...this legislation is passing through both Houses of the Oireachtas, which will happen at some stage in the future, they bear in mind that, when they decide to assign additional responsibilities to GSOC, which the draft legislation proposes, we will need the resources. When this Bill was debated in 2005 by the then Minister for Justice, now Senator Michael McDowell. He indicated that if we...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Ms Emily Logan: To be clear for the public's information, every complaint that comes into GSOC gets what is described as a preliminary examination, as with other ombudsmen's offices. We do not dismiss it. Much work goes into making sure we have full information before we make a decision that something is not admissible. The figures that Ms Healy is giving are figures that happen after our...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Pat Buckley: ...practically signing off on the new Protected Disclosures (Amendment) Bill 2022. Can the public send in whatever would be a protected disclosure that involves An Garda Síochána or even the Courts Service? Would GSOC deal with them directly? Mr. Justice MacCabe spoke about rights and how everybody is entitled to rights and that the certain stages in this. Mr. Hume said that in...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

..., we have approximately 69 investigations in hand that would come under the gambit of a protected disclosure. The protection of the rights and the anonymity of a protected disclosure made to GSOC is one of our primary functions when we receive it. We take this extremely seriously and place a great deal of emphasis on this. We have a dedicated protected disclosure unit, which is of a...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Pat Buckley: Does GSOC have the power to investigate the courts or the courts system? I will give a hypothetical scenario. Let us say an individual was arrested, was brought before the court, was sentenced and was sent to prison and had underlying problems, such as mental health problems, ADHD or illiteracy, and did not get the proper care, treatment or even legal representation while in prison awaiting...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Emer Higgins: ...at senior level in a multinational organisation so I am very familiar with putting together business cases for additional headcounts and business continuity planning. I am impressed by the ability of GSOC, as an organisation, to put forward the business case for an increase in headcount. I was quite struck to see in the briefing documentation that in 2018, the organisation grew by 30%...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Mr. Justice Rory MacCabe: We can give an example of the complexity of a case. Before GSOC started, there was an unfortunate incident in the midlands where a young man was shot by member of the Garda response unit. The initial investigation took place and then there was an inquest. Then there was a judge-led inquiry, and that is effectively what GSOC would do. That inquiry took three years...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: ..., but perhaps we could have some kind of a rough guide as to how many inspectors will be required to undertake a given volume of work, which might help us in our representations. Given the level of work GSOC has carried out over recent years, we are all becoming more familiar with it as the years go by. Will our guests outline the major gaps identified in Ireland's policing...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Ms Aileen Healy: We have had no protected disclosures from GSOC in recent years. I have the statistics to hand in respect of disclosures from An Garda Síochána in recent years. In 2018, there were 24; in 2019, 31; and in 2020, 19.

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Mr. Justice Rory MacCabe: One of the questions the Deputy asked was, effectively, whether we could give a guesstimate as to what types of resources we would need. As I mentioned, when GSOC was being debated in the context of the 2005 Bill that ultimately set it up, the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform indicated he believed that if every investigation were to be carried out...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Ms Emily Logan: I might add, in the context of protected disclosures, that GSOC has quite a unique function as against other organisations. Commissioner Hume referred to section 5, which relates to getting relevant information that may indicate potentially relevant wrongdoing, but the second part of that means we are obliged to make a decision in opening a case that it must be in the public...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Pádraig O'Sullivan: To return to theIrish Examiner article of a few weeks ago, there was a reference to two cases that had been instigated simultaneously, one by GSOC and the other by the Garda, with each of the organisations being unaware of the other’s investigation. The article reported that GSOC had ended up withdrawing its case and allowing the Garda to investigate the matter it was dealing it....

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Mr. Hugh Hume: We obviously cannot talk about specific cases, but I believe the case Deputy O'Donoghue refers to is being investigated by An Garda Síochána itself, it is not a matter for GSOC. I have no knowledge and, in any case, I would be prohibited from discussing it in any way. It is fair to say that as a general principle we recognise the importance of more timely...

Committee on Public Petitions: Engagement with the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (28 Apr 2022)

Richard O'Donoghue: I was hoping that GSOC's remit might be able to put a bit of light onto why the process is taking so long. I understand that GSOC is completely independent, but I was hoping that it would have something to do with making sure that An Garda Síochána's investigations can also move on a par with those of GSOC.