Wallace asked about summons

The Minister for Justice has asked the Garda Commissioner to advise him of the outcome of an internal investigation into the handling of an alleged assault on a newspaper photographer, the Minister of State for Justice, Ms Mary Wallace, told Mr Jim Hig- gins, the Fine Gael spokesman on Justice.

Mr Higgins had demanded to know the reason for the five-month delay by the Garda in the delivery of a summons for alleged assault on the cameraman, which had led to the charges being dismissed recently.

Ms Wallace said an internal Garda investigation was under way and if disciplinary proceedings were warranted, the Commissioner was vested with the necessary authority.

She understood the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed that the dismissal of the court proceedings be made the subject of "a case stated".

Mr Higgins said this was a case which had given rise to considerable public concern. It involved an alleged assault following a court case in which a garda sergeant had been found guilty of perverting the course of justice and a nine-month suspended sentence had been imposed.

The Irish Independent photographer had been verbally abused, his camera had been smashed into his face and his front teeth had been broken.

Just days before the expiry of the six-month service period, the summons had been issued . A garda had allegedly made several attempts to serve it without getting any reply.

"The summons was reissued. The garda got ill again and, lo and behold, by the time the summons was finally served on the individual in question, it was too late and the case was thrown out of court."

Mr Higgins said he wanted to know why the issuing of the original summons had been delayed by nearly six months and why the subsequent summons had not been put in the hands of another garda as one garda "quite obviously had problems with his health".

Ms Wallace assured the House that there would be no avoidable delay in finalising the internal Garda investigation.

Mr Higgins asked if, in view of the "shambles" which had led to the collapse of this case, the system of summons serving was being reviewed.

Ms Wallace said she was sure that whatever was learned from the investigation could be examined in due course.