Nóirín O’Sullivan may face another grilling

TDs have voted to send Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan’s answers on the phantom breath tests and traffic convictions scandals to the Medical Bureau of Road Safety amid concerns she is giving false information to the Dáil.

The cross-party justice committee agreed to the controversial move — and refused to rule out demanding she return for another public grilling — after claims Ms O’Sullivan’s latest evidence includes contradictions about what happened.

As part of ongoing concerns about her public evidence last month, the justice committee last week told Ms O’Sullivan to respond to a series of written questions clarifying her version of what happened in the lead up to the dual scandals.

The responses to 27 questions were provided to the committee on Tuesday evening and discussed in private by TDs and senators on the group yesterday.

Ms O’Sullivan’s latest evidence states that:

• The almost one million phantom breath tests between 2011 and 2016 and the near 14,700 false road traffic convictions during the same period were not used “as a performance indicator” by gardaí to claim overtime.
• There was no “co-ordinated effort or drive” to inflate figures.
• It is unclear whether the full scale of the false figures will increase when a further review takes place.
• Domestic violence and homicide statistics may also be inaccurate and are being re-examined.

Ms O’Sullivan also said she did not decide to release the figures on the scandal because of imminent media reports, and denied the records had until then been hidden.

In Ms O’Sullivan’s written evidence, the Garda Commissioner said an examination into breath test figures in the southern region began after an anonymous letter from a garda reserve in April 2014. She also said that in March 2015, the assistant commissioner in traffic called for each district to monitor checkpoints and that she and her colleagues were not aware of the scale of concerns at a national level until two days before media reports on the issue.

However, justice committee members have questioned whether this is correct, saying the information contradicts itself.

Specifically, the majority of the committee has said while Ms O’Sullivan said Garda management were not informed of any national audit until June 2016, when the assistant commissioner for traffic called for a review of mandatory alcohol checkpoints and prepared a report for senior management, Ms O’Sullivan later said “no report was submitted to the commissioner’s office or Department of Justice” until last month.

As a result, the committee has agreed to send Ms O’Sullivan’s lengthy 23-page response to the director of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, Prof Denis Cusack, so he can clarify if the evidence contradicts his own version of events.

Ms O’Sullivan’s questions were sent to Prof Cusack by the committee last night despite opposition from Fine Gael committee members Alan Farrell and Colm Brophy, with sources confirming the Garda Commissioner may be hauled before the committee again for further questioning.