GSOC protected disclosures unit 'struggled to meet demand' with 20 cases in 2021

GSOC commissioner Emily Logan saida range of issues had affected GSOC’s ability to fulfil its function, including the 'convoluted' legislative basis for its oversight powers and its problems with 'limited staffing and resources'. File picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins 

The Garda ombudsman received 20 protected disclosures from members of An Garda Síochána last year, while several others were closed as “no disciplinary proceedings were warranted”.

GSOC, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, said it had closed 26 such disclosures across the 12-month period in 2021, leaving its total live caseload at 69 as at end December..

The 20 disclosures received were broadly in line with the 19 received in 2020 from members of the force, GSOC said in its annual report on external disclosures, published on Wednesday.

The ombudsman said it received no internal protected disclosures from its own employees last year, the second year in a row in which that was the case.

Of the 26 disclosures which “did not proceed any further” in 2021, GSOC said that eventuality had occurred for “a number of reasons”, including where “no disciplinary issues arose and no disciplinary proceedings were warranted” according to the appointed Garda investigating officers.

Others had been sent forward to a board of inquiry, the results of which would not be known before the end of 2022, GSOC said.

In nine of the closed cases, the discloser had withdrawn their complaint via their “disengagement from the process”. This could occur either because the discloser wished to pursue other avenues or had failed to engage with GSOC following the initial approach, according to the ombudsman.

Two other cases following anonymous disclosures saw GSOC initiate its own investigation only to discover that an ongoing Garda investigation into the matter was in train. Those instances saw an investigative report laid before the Director of Public Prosecutions, who subsequently put the matters before the courts.

GSOC said that in one of those cases, an ombudsman's investigation was no longer considered “reasonably practicable”. In the other, it concluded “no misbehaviour by a member of the Garda Síochána has been identified and as such no further action in relation to this matter”.

Just eight of the closed cases were deemed “not to have met the threshold of relevant wrongdoing”, the commission said.

Resources

GSOC, which has for some time bemoaned the level of resources available to it, said its protected disclosures unit had “continued to struggle to meet the demands for its services” over the full year.

It said its staff members dealing with disclosures specifically had received training to that end from Maynooth University.

GSOC’s workload increased in 2021 year on year by 13%, continuing an upward trend previously noted in 2019.

In correspondence with the Public Accounts Committee earlier this year, GSOC's director of administration Aileen Healy said the “increased complexity” of many of the issues being brought to the ombudsman’s attention raise “serious concerns about GSOC's capacity to deal with them in a timely and effective manner and in the context of current workloads”.

Last month Emily Logan, one of GSOC’s three commissioners, said it had been “rightly” criticised by complainants and gardaí alike for the slow pace of its investigations.

She said that a range of issues has affected GSOC’s ability to fulfil its function, including the “convoluted” legislative basis for its oversight powers and its problems with “limited staffing and resources”.