Gardaí to face disciplinary proceedings after internal report, says commissioner

A number of Gardaí will face disciplinary proceedings following the internal garda report into the cancellation of penalty points, according to the Garda Commissioner.

Martin Callinan said the report has been sent to the Garda Inspectorate and Oireachtas Justice Committee, although Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar said the Garda Ombudsman Commission should investigate the incidents of penalty point cancellations by gardaí.

Mr Varakar said there are some elements of the report by assistant commissioner John O’Mahoney that appeared unusual to a reasonable person.

“The gardaí have taken this seriously and they have proposed some procedures to tighten up the system, but reading through the reports, I have to say not so much that they looked at the underbelly of this, but that in a lot of cases, they were explaining away penalty point terminations that to the reasonable person, seems a bit unusual,” he said.

“The RSA is now proposing that there be a further investigation by the Garda Ombudsman Commission and they’ve got a good suggestion.”

“I think it’s very important that the public does have confidence in the penalty point system. The law needs to be enforced and needs to be enforced in the same way on everyone, ” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

Mr Callinan said he could not comment on Mr Varadkar’s statement.

RSA chairman Gay Byrne said the board was “unhappy” with the findings of the internal Garda inquiry and will be asking for an independent review.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter asked the Department of Transport and the RSA to study and respond with their own views of the findings.

“The report raised more questions than were answered and a further outside review would be more than helpful to everybody,” Mr Byrne said.

“We would welcome the opportunity to have the report examined by another investigation. We recommended the Comptroller and Auditor General or the Garda Ombudsman should undertake a review,” the chairman added.