Gsoc investigated most of Martin Kenny’s malpractice allegations

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has already investigated the majority of allegations raised by Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny.

The police watchdog is understood to have completed an investigation into some of the claims and others are still under active consideration.

Mr Kenny had raised a number of allegations of Garda malpractice in his constituency of Sligo-Leitrim in the Dáil.

The Irish Times understands files were opened on all of the claims with some still being investigated by Gsoc and others closed.

In a statement the watchdog said: “The Ombudsman Commission is happy to meet with deputy Kenny to discuss the matters which he brought into the public domain yesterday.

“The investigation of any such matters will be treated with the confidentiality that the Protected Disclosures process demands.”

Mr Kenny has alleged that “rogue” gardaí were using criminal informants to entrap people and then prosecute them.

Outlining a series of incidents, Mr Kenny also claimed high ranking gardaí were protecting these rogue gardaí and covering for them with secrecy and denial.

He alleged gardaí were running their own informants outside the rules of the Covert Handling of Intelligence Sources (CHIS) programme.

The TD said he had yet to formally bring the allegations to Gsoc.

However Mr Kenny claimed the Garda whistleblowers who approached him had engaged with Garda authorities on multiple occasions.

He said this process began as far back as 2009 and continued until 2015.

Mr Kenny said: “The two gardaí, now retired, received a letter in November 2015, informing them that the Independent Review Mechanism of complaints to An Garda Síochána, while acknowledging many of their concerns would not be carrying out any further investigation.

“After that, the whistleblowers again approached me and asked me to raise these matters. This was done yesterday.”