Watchdog should vet Garda ‘under own volition’

THE independent police watchdog should be able to examine Garda practices and policies without having to get the permission of the Justice Minister, according to the state’s human rights body.

This issue has been in the spotlight after it emerged that an application in 2007 by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) to the then Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan, to examine Garda policing at the Corrib gas project was rejected.

Following the recent controversy over the so-called Garda “rape tape” there have been further calls by protest groups and civil rights bodies for an examination of garda policing of anti-Shell protests to be examined by the policing watchdog.