GSOC chief Simon O’Brien to quit with two years of contract left

Head of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) Simon O'Brien has announced his resignation despite still having two years to run on his contract.

The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and the Garda Representative Association had previously called on him to resign over his handling of a number of contentious events.

Just over three months ago, Mr O’Brien insisted he had no intention of stepping down over his handling of the controversy in the wake of media reports suggesting the GSOC believed its offices had been bugged. “I have no intention of resigning, nor will my commissioner colleagues be resigning,” he said in late September.

However, after an often controversial period in charge of the body that investigates the Garda, Mr O’Brien has confirmed he is to step down at the end of the month.

Pensions ombudsman

From the UK, where he worked as a police officer in the London Met, Mr O’Brien said he has decided to return to his homeland to take up the role of chief executive of the Pensions Ombudsman Service from February 2nd.

"I have been in Ireland for five years in two posts," he said, referring to his tenure as deputy chief inspector of the Garda Inspectorate before assuming the chairman's role at the GSOC in December 2011.

“This is a significant opportunity and I am looking forward to the new challenge. The new post will bring me back home to be with my wife and young family in London.”

During Mr O’Brien’s term at the head of the GSOC, which coincided with former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan’s leading of the Garda, the already strained relations between the force and its watchdog reached an all-time low.

Anomalies

Last February it emerged in a newspaper report that a UK- based firm,

Verrimus

, had conducted a security sweep at the GSOC’s offices. The audit identified what the firm said were anomalies that suggested the offices had been bugged.

The GSOC issued a statement saying the Garda was not a suspect for the possible bugging.

Mr Callinan was irate at the direct linking of the force with the controversy. He rejected any suggestion of Garda involvement and questioned the GSOC’s handling of the reported anomalies. He also questioned its management of the matter when it became public.

He publicly sought clarification from the GSOC on the nature and extent of the anomalies identified; whether these amounted to a security breach; whether a criminal offence was suspected; and the basis for the suspicion of Garda misconduct. A major policing and political crisis ensued.