Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

There are many fora for doing so but the purpose of this ombudsman commission is to deal with contemporary complaints in general and only in exceptional cases will it be employed on a retrospective basis. It is open to the ombudsman commission, if it appears to it to be desirable in the public interest to do so, without receiving a complaint, to investigate any matter which appears to indicate that a member of the Garda Síochána may have committed an offence or behaved in a manner which would justify disciplinary proceedings.

There is not on the face of section 102(4) a time limit of any kind. The commission is an independent body. If it comes across a matter outside its time limits it can examine and decide on the matter but that is not something in which I would lightly engage. Section 102(5) states:

The Minister may, if he or she considers it desirable in the public interest to do so, request the Ombudsman Commission to investigate any matter that appears to the Minister to indicate that a member of the Garda Síochána may have done anything referred to in subsection (4), and the Commission shall investigate the matter.