Gardaí to review investigation into Jobstown protest

The Garda Commissioner should examine evidence given by members of the force at the Jobstown trial, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Against a background of repeated allegations that the evidence of Garda witnesses was not accurate, Mr Varadkar's remarks were interpreted in political circles as a clear request to the Garda to act on questions raised by the acquittal of Paul Murphy TD and other water charge protesters.

However, Mr Varadkar told RTÉ's Prime Time programme he did not think a public inquiry would serve any purpose.

Following Thursday night’s broadcast, the Garda said a review into “the policing response and the subsequent investigation into the incident” at Jobstown began last Friday. It is being carried out by Assistant Commissioner Barry O’Brien.

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The review would identify organisational practices and policies which require improvement and would look at training and “other issues of note”.

Speaking at a Solidarity rally in Tallaght on Thursday night, Mr Murphy said the Taoiseach’s remarks were “the first crack in the wall of the opposition to a public inquiry”.

Mr Murphy was last week acquitted, with five other men, of the false imprisonment of then tánaiste Joan Burton and her assistant Karen O'Connell during a water charges protest in November 2014 at Jobstown in west Dublin.

In a piece written for The Irish Times Joe Higgins, a Solidarity activist and former party TD and MEP, argues there is "ample reason" to launch an independent inquiry into the Garda investigation and conduct.

‘Politically motivated’ Mr Murphy has alleged, under Dáil privilege, that the case against him and his co-accused was politically motivated and based on evidence from

gardaí that was not truthful. The Taoiseach said last night: “People need to trust what the gardaí say on the stand.”

He could understand when “people are caught up in the heat of the moment, they may have a recollection that isn’t exactly as things happened.

“But I would be very concerned if it’s the case that we would ever have gardaí on a stand in the courts giving evidence that is not in line with the facts; that is not in line with, for example, the video evidence . . .

“We need to be able to trust that when the gardaí stand up in court and they say something happened, that it did happen. And it shouldn’t conflict with the video evidence. And if it does, then that is a problem.”