90% of requests from Garda Ombudsman fully complied with

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said that almost 90% of requests for information from the Garda Ombudsman have been fully complied with since last September.

He said he accepted there had been delays by the force in respect of some requests, prompting his establishment of a new system eight months ago.

Under the protocol between the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and the gardaí, there is a 30-day limit for the handing over of requested documentation.

The Garda chief said he had set up a dedicated GSOC liaison office, under the assistant commissioner for human resources, as well as a dedicated email to receive and progress all requests.

He said that, since September, some 219 requests for information and documentation have been received and 192 have been fully complied with and the remainder were being closely monitored and supervised.

The commissioner said discussions were being held to review the protocol to make it acceptable to both sides.

In connection with criticisms from GSOC about the failure of gardaí to investigate more minor cases within the agreed 12-week time frame, Mr Callinan said the 600 or so such investigations cost the force around €1.3m to conduct.

Commissioner Callinan said the investigations took, on average, 78 hours to complete at a cost of around €2,200 each.

He pointed out that these investigations were referred to the force by GSOC and conducted by the gardaí on their behalf. He said the “both organisations have accepted it is usually not possible to adhere to this timeline” and that a review of the timeline by the two bodies intended to extend this limit to 16 weeks for unsupervised investigations and 24 weeks for supervised investigations.