Garda Ombudsman rejects GRA criticism

The chairman of the Garda Siochána Ombudsman Commission has rejected allegations of “incompetence” made by the Garda Representative Organisation earlier this week.

The president of the GRA Michael O’Boyce mounted a stinging attack on the GSOC at the association’s annual conference in Tullow, Co Carlow, claiming the commission had “excelled itself in its blundering incompetence”.

GSOC chairman Mr Justice Kevin Haugh

In particular, Mr O’Boyce critisicised investigators from the ombudsman’s office over the search of a Garda lockers in Limerick’s Roxboro Road station during which evidence was allegedly damaged.

Chairman of the GSOC Mr Justice Kevin Haugh rejected the criticisms today and suggested they stemmed from a “misunderstanding” on the part of the GRA about the functions of his office. While he said he didn't "resent" the coments, he would have preferred if the GRA's concerns were aired in private. “I would prefer if some of these matters had been raised with us first in a more formal way,” he said.

He said there had been a call at the GRA conference to initiate court proceedings over the conduct of investigations into allegations against gardaí – both on and off duty - which were subsequently found to be groundless.

“But this is the point of a body like ours. We must investigate complaints that gardaí have abused their powers or engaged in misbehaviour. We can’t decline to investigate these matters merely because the gardaí maintain that what they were doing was lawful."

He said very few cases of allegations against gardaí resulted in applications to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

“But we are an independent oversight body and [investigating complaints] is the purpose of our existence. To say that we shouldn’t investigate things that the gardaí say are lawful seems to me to miss the point.”

Mr Justice Haugh said that while his office did not “stick our noses” into private matters, it also had an obligation to investigate the activities of off-duty gardaí if it believed their conduct could bring the force into disrepute.

He said it was generally regarded internationally that police forces were not the ideal bodies to investigate allegations against their members.

In reference to the search of garda lockers, Mr Justice Haugh insisted it was an “appropriate” response to serious allegations under investigation. He said the search, which was carried out under the supervision of a senior garda officer, was videoed by GSOC staff.

He said his office has not received any formal complaint about the incident or any alleged damage to evidence, nor did he believe it merited one.

Mr Justice Haugh said the relationship between his office and the Garda was “generally quite good” and he would welcome private talks with the GRA over specific concerns they might have.

The GSOC’s second annual report revealed today that the office has received almost 3,000 complaints since it became operational in May 2007. Of those, the majority came from young men. Some 17 per cent were from foreign nationals.

The office is conducting 750 investigations into alleged criminal conduct and has sent nine cases to the Director of Public Prosecutions for consideration, including one case which centred on knowingly providing the ombudsman with false or misleading information.

By law, the Garda Commissioner must refer any incident involving the death of a person to the GSOC. Seventeen such deaths are being investigated – eleven in crashes involving gardai and six in Garda custody. Of those six, Ombudsman Comissioner Carmel Foley said many might have happened anyway as the deceased had overdosed on drugs or been gravely ill.

The areas where the most complaints originated were the Dublin, Louth/Meath and Mayo regions. The majority of complaints in Mayo derived from the Corrib gas protests.