Opposition TDs reject Garda reports on penalty points

Opposition TDs who first highlighted the penalty points issue have rejected the Garda reports into the matter and called for an independent inquiry.

Mick Wallace, Clare Daly, Luke "Ming" Flanagan and Joan Collins issued an 18-page rebuttal to the reports, which they said were flawed and partial.

They also accused Minister for Justice Alan Shatter of disingenuous and diversionary tactics in relation to the conclusions of the Garda reports.

“We ask the question if this limited and constitutionally unsound investigation has such wide and far-reaching recommendations to both the policy and processes of fixed-charge notice cancellation, what would the result of an impartial special independent inquiry be?”

Questions
They questioned why it was that senior gardaí had investigated other senior gardaí and why two Garda whistleblowers, one of them retired, were not given the opportunity to put their case to the internal review.

Mr Wallace said there was an onus on the force to restore the trust of the public in the Garda. “It wasn’t all gardaí that were involved in it but all gardaí are being blamed.”

He told The Irish Times he had received a £30,000 out- of-court settlement in 2000 after he took an action against the then minister over what has been described as a case of wrongful arrest.

Ms Collins said the Garda reports did not vindicate anybody. “There wasn’t a detailed delving into the issues.”

No regrets
She had no regrets over her use of Dáil privilege to name some of the beneficiaries of the practice. "We named names because we were getting nowhere with the Minister."

A Department of Justice spokeswoman said Mr Shatter had sent both Garda reports to the Oireachtas justice committee and the Garda Inspectorate.

“Each body is entirely independent of An Garda Síochána and each will in its own way address any issues that arise out of the reports,” she said.

The Oireachtas justice committee is examining whether it can refer the penalty points question to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

Committee chairman David Stanton TD ( Fine Gael|), said it may be that there was no formal mechanism for it to make such a referral and for the ombudsman to accept it.