Gsoc: We do not have enough staff to do our job

Gsoc saw an 11% increase in the number of complaints it handled in 2020.

The Garda Ombudsman has warned it does not have enough staff to perform its job properly.

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc), the oversight body which investigates complaints about alleged wrongdoing and incidents involving members of An Garda Síochána, saw an 11% increase in the number of complaints it handled in 2020 — up to 1,955.

However, the number of criminal investigations opened across 2020 increased at a greater rate — up 18% to 572, suggesting the severity of the complaints encountered has also increased significantly.

Gsoc received 43 section 102 referrals last year emanating from within An Garda Síochána. Such incidents include “conduct of a member of the Garda Síochána may have resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, a person”.

Justice Mary Ellen Ring, a High Court judge and chair of Gsoc since 2015, has said “it would be the view of the commission that the staffing of an oversight body such as Gsoc is not in line with other civil service departments or agencies”.

'Increased work level'

In response to a query from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Justice Ring said that the commission’s “increased work level in 2020 — and continuing into 2021 — came at a time when there was no resulting increase in investigative personnel and at a time when Covid restrictions challenged the work of our staff in keeping with the rest of the country”.

Gsoc has been a frequent target for complaints regarding delays in investigations in recent years, including the probe into the finances of the Garda training college in Templemore.

In January this year, the family of George Nkencho — a 27-year-old man with mental health problems shot dead by an armed garda in west Dublin — expressed concern that statements from key witnesses had not been taken by Gsoc eight days after the shooting.

In a letter to PAC, seen by the Irish Examiner, Justice Ring said at present there are four vacancies for investigators in Gsoc staffing, but that such vacancies take “a period of months to complete and actually have a person in post ready for work”.

Gsoc had 125 staff at the end of 2019, an increase of 33 from the previous year. That increase was first sanctioned in November 2018 when the commission was authorised to recruit an additional 42 staff, the exact number which had been requested in a prepared business case.

Justice Ring said the work of the commission is further hampered by “out of the blue” events, “a shooting, a traffic incident, a death after Garda contact, a death in a Garda cell — which requires an immediate response from investigators”.

“These incidents cannot be planned for but must be responded to in accordance with our statutory mandate,” she said.

She said that, with the potential passage of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill, published last April and which would see the independence and remit of Gsoc expanded, there will be a need for an “increased investigation section”.