‘Ombudsman has been undermined’

The Government is “undermining” the ability of the Garda Ombudsman to do its job, according to one of the country’s leading experts on criminal justice.

Professor Dermot Walsh said there was an “inappropriately unequal” relationship between the justice minister and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

The author claimed that even though the watchdog’s operational independence was enshrined under the law, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Justice Minister Alan Shatter thought they could “intervene and interfere” when GSOC “overstepped the mark”.