Call to hold judges accountable for their reports

A leading human rights body has said that senior barristers and judges conducting reviews for the State should be held "personally accountable" for their reports.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties was responding to reports in the Irish Examiner detailing reasons why retired judge John Cooke had turned down an invitation to address a joint hearing of the Oireachtas Public Services Oversight and Petitions Committee and the Oireachtas Justice Committee.

The two committees wanted Mr Cooke to clarify and expand upon issues raised in his report on alleged bugging of the Garda Ombudsman.

This included details of suspected physical surveillance on both the Garda Ombudsman and Verimus, the British security firm hired by GSOC to investigate possible bugging of its offices.

The former High Court justice wrote to the Public Services Oversight Committee — which issued the invitation — reluctantly turning down the offer.

“The ICCL entirely rejects the spurious propositions that an Oireachtas Committee should not hear from the author of a non-statutory review because he did not take evidence under oath and/or because of his previous professional status in life,” said ICCL director Mr Kelly.

“As the ICCL has repeatedly pointed out, retired Judge Cooke should not have been appointed with such weak terms of reference.”

Mr Kelly claimed the former judge had “serious questions” to answer about shortcomings in the investigative methodology of his review.

He said these included:

- Why he made “no independent investigative attempt” to establish objectively whether or not surveillance of GSOC by An Garda Síochána had been sought or authorised.

- Why he didn’t interview a single member of An Garda Síochána or the Defence Forces.

- Why he made no examination of the records kept of the use of surveillance equipment by police or military intelligence services.

- Why he didn’t subject the “oversight” activities of the “designated judges” under the relevant surveillance legislation subject to any form of review?

“The ICCL considers that, in future, a willingness to be held personally accountable should explicitly form part of the qualities required of persons appointed to conduct reviews of this nature,” said Mr Kelly.

Public Services Oversight Committee chairman Padraig Mac Lochlainn said they were seeking legal advice on the issues raised in Judge Cooke’s letter. He said they would be also writing to the Government to highlight the implications for Oireachtas committees in fulfilling oversight responsibilities.