Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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619. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current grades of staff employed at GSOC; and the number of staff employed within each grade in tabular form. [3586/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has a hugely important role to play in ensuring that public confidence in An Garda Síochána is safeguarded and, as such, it has extensive powers under the Garda Síochána Act 2005.

The Government is committed to ensuring that GSOC has the necessary supports and resources in order to fulfil its statutory functions and mandate.A provision of €11.27 million has been made for GSOC in 2021.

I am informed that the table below provides an outline of the current grades of staff within GSOC.

It should be noted that the above figure provided for Higher Executive Officers Includes 2 Officers with the Disclosures Tribunal.

I am further informed that, of the staffing complement outlined above, the following breakdown of staff are assigned to the GSOC Investigations Directorate.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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620. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of investigations which had to be referred back to An Garda Síochána from GSOC in order to be completed in each of the years 2015 to 2020, in tabular form. [3587/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has a very important role to play in ensuring public confidence in An Garda Síochána and it has extensive powers under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended).

The Government is committed to ensuring that GSOC has the necessary supports and resources in order to fulfil its statutory functions and mandate. I can inform the Deputy that Budget 2021 made provision of €11.27 million for the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

As the Deputy may be aware, GSOC investigations do not have to be referred back to An Garda Síochána in order to be completed. They are referred back either under statutory provisions under sections 94(1) and 94(5) of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended) or when a judgement is made by GSOC that the matters under scrutiny fall more at the lower end of the discipline-only spectrum and so are more appropriately dealt with by An Garda Síochána.

Unsupervised disciplinary investigations are conducted under section 94 (1) of the Act by Garda superintendents in line with the Garda Discipline Regulations. The Protocols between GSOC and An Garda Síochána say that unsupervised investigations must be completed and a final report issued to GSOC within 16 weeks. An example of the kind of case that is investigated in this way is an allegation that there was abuse of authority in the manner in which an arrest was conducted.

In addition, supervised disciplinary investigations are conducted under section 94(5) of the Act, by Garda superintendents also but are supervised by GSOC investigators who meet with the Garda superintendents to agree an investigation plan. The GSOC investigator can direct and partake in the investigative actions, and must receive interim reports. The Protocols say that supervised disciplinary investigations must be completed and an investigation report provided within 20 weeks. Supervised investigations are appropriate in more serious allegations of neglect of duty.

The tables below, furnished to me by GSOC, set out the number of investigations opened under section 94(1), i.e. unsupervisedinvestigation by An Garda Síochána, and section 94(5), i.e. investigation by An Garda Síochána supervisedby GSOC, in the years 2015 – 2020, making a total of 3,890 cases.

Additionally, since the start of 2018, GSOC has referred cases to An Garda Síochána for Local Intervention. This is a process whereby complaints made by members of the public to GSOC about service they have received from An Garda Síochána may be resolved at a local level. Such complaints are referred to nominated Garda inspectors who will attempt to resolve matters to the complainant’s satisfaction. This is on the basis that cases which involve a service level complaint, of a minor nature, may be resolved quickly and satisfactorily in this manner, thus freeing up investigative resources to deal with more serious disciplinary and criminal complaints.

The table below sets out the number of cases referred to An Garda Síochána for Local Intervention.

It is also worth noting that the system utilised by GSOC to manage the Local Intervention process is not automated and dependent on manual data entry. Similarly, the analytical tools which exist in relation to other areas of GSOC’s Case Handling System do not apply to the Local Intervention process.

Of the 545 cases referred for Local Intervention, 145 cases were referred back to GSOC for admissibility. The following table counts those cases which were determined as admissible and sets out whether they were investigated under section 94(1) or section 94(5).

NOTE: the case from 2017 was admitted in November 2017 but then identified as suitable for Local Intervention at the start of the pilot in early January 2018.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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621. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the status of the work within her Department on legislative reforms to GSOC (details supplied); the length of time this work has been ongoing; and when the proposals from GSOC were first received by her Department. [3588/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that in May 2017, the Government established the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland (CoFPI). The remit of CoFPI included the review of the police oversight architecture including how complaints against members of An Garda Síochána are dealt with. Parallel with CoFPI’s review, in December 2017 the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) sent proposals to the then Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan TD, for fundamental legislative reform, including in relation to GSOC’s independence.

Given CoFPI's remit, the Minister referred these proposals to CoFPI as an input to their work. The Deputy will be aware that CoFPI engaged extensively with GSOC in its own right as reflected in the final CoFPI Report, which was published in September 2018.

The new Programme for Government, Our Shared Future, commits to the rapid implementation of the recommendations of the Report of CoFPI and to the introduction of the Policing and Community Safety Bill to redefine the functions of An Garda Síochána and to provide a new governance and oversight framework.

Work on the General Scheme of the Policing and Community Safety Bill is at an advanced stage. It will, as recommended by CoFPI, include proposals for the reform of the processes for the handling of complaints and the conduct of investigations by GSOC in order to streamline them and ensure timely resolution while safeguarding due process for all concerned.

Extensive consultations have taken place with key stakeholders, including with GSOC and the Garda Síochána in the course of this work. I hope to be in a position to seek the approval of the Government to publish the General Scheme and to draft the Bill early this year.