'Likely' that people suffered over cancelled 999 calls, says retired senior garda

Retired Assistant Garda Commissioner Pat Leahy. Credit: Crispin Rodwell

It is “likely” that vulnerable people “suffered” as a result of the cancelled Garda 999 calls controversy, according to a retired Assistant Garda Commissioner.

Pat Leahy, retired Assistant Commissioner for the Dublin Metropolitan Region, said that by the law of averages with more than 1,400 cancelled domestic violence calls from 2019 and 2020 under investigation, it is “likely there were people who suffered as a result of the gardaí not responding”.

It is not an unfair supposition, someone probably did not come out of that situation well,” he said.

He added that he does not “believe that technology was at fault” for the scandal, which saw more than 200,000 calls cancelled overall in just 22 months between January 2019 and October of last year.

“The system has most probably done its job,” he said. "In that context, it likely comes down to humans and human decisions."

Mr Leahy, who retired in 2020 after a 38-year career, said that “the Policing Authority has been emphatic that they had received no detailed information concerning the investigation, and they would not be saying that unless it was fact”.

If the gardaí had the data and wouldn’t share it, then that’s unacceptable,” he said.

He added that the scandal, which has revealed that more than 2,000 domestic violence emergency calls were cancelled by gardaí for “invalid” reasons, has created “a significant crisis of confidence and trust in policing in Ireland”.

“If information has been kept from the Policing Authority, then you’re piling bad news on top of bad news and just prolonging the agony,” he said.

"As it is, the Policing Authority is evidently very, very frustrated, and that’s not a good sign.”

Meanwhile, vice president of the Garda Representative Association Brendan O’Connor said today that he did not understand “the narrative” or suggestion that victims had dialled 999 and that gardaí did not respond.

“I don’t understand how that situation could arise," he said.

"We’re an emergency service, generally we would drop everything and respond.”