Fears for GSOC as staff levels fall 20%
There are 21 fewer staff at the watchdog compared to when it was set up over six years ago.
Even under the reduced 2013 staff levels sanctioned by the Department of Justice, the ombudsman still has nine vacancies. The body has lost up to six of its most senior investigators in little over a year.
It comes at a time when there is intense debate over the effectiveness of the watchdog amid plans by the Government to increase its remit and review its powers.
It currently has 77 staff, compared to 98 in 2007. In addition, the watchdog now has two seconded Garda superintendents, half what it had in 2007.
“A 20% cut in staff doesn’t tally with all the assurances we have been receiving from the Government that they want this to be a serious oversight body,” said Sinn Féin justice spokesman Pádraig Mac Lochlainn. The chairman of the Oireachtas Public Service Oversight Committee, which supervises the work of the ombudsman, described the level of cuts as “worrying”.
Figures supplied to the Irish Examiner show that when the body was set up in 2007, it had a staffing sanction of 98. This did not include the three-member commission that runs the body or the four Garda superintendents seconded to it. That gave a total of 105.
In 2009, the number of seconded superintendents was reduced by two.
In 2010, the Department of Justice introduced an Employment Control Framework, which substantially reduced the staffing sanction to 87. The department’s workforce plan, issued to GSOC on October 25, 2013, reduced the staffing to 86. This did not include the three commissioners and two seconded superintendents.
As of February 26, GSOC had 77 staff, with nine vacancies unfilled. With the commissioners and the two superintendents, its total complement stands at 82. “The biggest effect of a 21% cut in staff is that investigations are going to take longer,” said one well- placed source.
“That is in addition to the physical toll on staff. GSOC is now at the stage where the cuts are having an impact. People need to be replaced. That’s before any increase in workload.”
Mr Mac Lochlainn said a lot of GSOC investigations were already “taking far too long”. He added: “We have got to restore confidence in the oversight body.”
He said when Justice Minister Alan Shatter gives GSOC the responsibility to deal with complaints from gardaí, he has to increase resources.
“They will need 20% more staff on top of what they had when they started. This has to be addressed.”
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan told an Oireachtas committee last November the force spent 45,000 hours conducting investigations on behalf of GSOC in 2012 at a cost of €1.3m. A spokeswoman for GSOC said it did not comment on staffing issues.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that solicitors for Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe are writing to the Ceann Comhairle asking for the Dáil records of last October to be corrected to remove comments from Mr Shatter that Sgt McCabe did not co-operate with an inquiry.
The Department of Justice was not in a position to provide a comment in the time available.
