Probe into why senior official had to apologise

A powerful Dáil group is set to write to the Department of Justice to clarify why a senior official who said judges “don’t take burglaries seriously” was forced to apologise the following day.

The cross-party public accounts committee said it wants to know if assistant secretary general Jimmy Martin was pressured into the climbdown by any politician or backroom official, warning “raising a complaint seems to be frowned on”.

During a PAC meeting last Thursday, Mr Martin told the committee judges “don’t view burglaries as a serious offence”.