Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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64. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will provide a total breakdown by Garda division and District Court area regarding the discrepancies disclosed on 23 March 2017 between actual alcohol tests administered and the numbers recorded by gardaí for each of the years in question; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15640/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that I have discussed the issue of breath test discrepancies in detail with the Garda Commissioner and the Chairperson of the Policing Authority and have outlined my very serious concerns in relation to the matter. In particular, my concerns stem from the fact that sizeable numbers of the general public have interacted and will interact with An Garda Síochána in the context of road traffic enforcement, including at a Mandatory Alcohol Testing checkpoint. As such, it is critical that there is public confidence in the operation and oversight of these vital enforcement systems.

The Deputy will be aware that An Garda Síochána has confirmed that it has put solutions in place to deal with the procedural and practice issues that have been detected to ensure that such errors do not recur. Specifically, in the case of breath tests/Mandatory Alcohol Testing, I am informed that An Garda Síochána initially put in place new paper based recording and verification processes, and, in November 2016, a new specific data recording IT upgrade was installed on the Garda PULSE system. The net effect of the new IT upgrade was that personnel now have to record the serial number of the device used for each breath test plus the meter reading before and after the checkpoint was concluded. Data from the device is now used to verify the total number of breath tests conducted at each checkpoint.

The Deputy will be aware that the Garda Commissioner has announced the creation of a dedicated team under newly-appointed Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan to investigate in detail the MATs issue, including with a view to identifying and holding responsible for their actions any Garda members, whether at junior, supervisory or management level, who acted improperly; and committed to forwarding the report of this investigation to the Policing Authority and Department of Justice and Equality when completed.

Notwithstanding any internal review, the Government believes that an external investigation into these two specific matters needs be carried out. The Government believes the level of public concern is now so profound that it may now be time to conduct a thorough, comprehensive and independent root-and-branch review of An Garda Síochána. That is clearly a proposal that will require further detailed consideration by the Government. The Government also believes that any such proposal should command widespread support in the Oireachtas and accordingly be the subject of consultation with the Opposition, and ultimately approval by the Oireachtas.

Assistant Commissioner Finn outlined new arrangements agreed this week with the Medical Bureau on Roads Safety to the effect that that body would supply An Garda Síochána with its data on breath-testing devices on a quarterly basis, in order to ensure an independent benchmark against which Garda data can be measured. The MBRS will shortly be tendering for new breath testing equipment. New equipment which is available in the market place has the capacity to record the time, GPS location and number of persons breath-tested, and has the capacity to download the information automatically reducing the chances of errors occurring in the data.

The Garda Commissioner has been in direct contact with the Policing Authority in relation to the matters referred to in the Deputy's question and the Chairperson of the Policing Authority, Josephine Feehily, has confirmed that the Authority will have an independent professional audit undertaken of the steps taken to resolve the issues;and oversee the investigation being undertaken by Assistant Commissioner O’Sullivan.

I welcome the fact that the focus of the Authority's next public meeting with the Garda Commissioner will be on road traffic enforcement. This public meeting will be held on 27 April 2017 and will provide a most timely opportunity for An Garda Síochána to engage with the Authority and the general public on these key procedural and practice issues that are now before us. The reason that I prioritised and set up the Authority was to shine a light on and examine issues such as these.

I will continue to maintain close contact with the Garda Commissioner and the Chairperson of the Policing Authority in relation to these matters.

I have requested a report from the Garda authorities in relation to the statistics requested by the Deputy and I will contact the Deputy directly upon receipt of a Garda report.