Simon Harris backs call for inquiry into Limerick garda ticket fixing probe

Labour TD Alan Kelly told the Dáil that '11 gardaí had their lies destroyed' because 'once you’re suspended as a garda, nothing is the same again'

At leader’s questions in the Dáil, Tánaiste Simon Harris said there does need to be a form of examination or inquiry into the case. Picture: PA

Tánaiste Simon Harris has added his voice to the growing calls for an inquiry into the Limerick garda ticket fixing investigations. 

The call came the day after three gardaí were informed that all charges against them of perverting the course of justice will now be dropped. 

Garda Peter O’Donnell, Garda Paul Baynham, and Garda Niall Deegan were due to go on trial later this month. 

In January, at the end of a 35-day trial, four other gardaí and a retired superintendent were found not guilty of similar charges. 

The result brings to an end a six-year ordeal since the gardaí were all first suspended after an investigation by the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation (NBCI). 

The affair has given rise to a series of questions over why prosecutions were taken, why the case took so long, why a top crime-fighting unit was detailed to conduct the investigation, and why no other garda division was subjected to the same scrutiny. 

All of the criminal charges were in connection with alleged “squaring” of traffic tickets, a matter that would ordinarily have been dealt with by a disciplinary process — if at all.

Last month, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there should be some kind of an inquiry into what happened. 

'Lives put on hold'

At leaders' questions in the Dáil, Tánaiste Simon Harris said there does need to be a form of examination or inquiry into the case.

“In the first instance, it is a matter for my colleague, the minister for justice. I haven’t had a chance to discuss it with him, but I share the view of the Taoiseach. I can only imagine the lives put on hold, the stress, and the strain that this has put on people, and these people deserve answers”.

He was responding to Labour TD Alan Kelly, who has repeatedly raised the case in the Dáil.

Mr Kelly told the House that “11 gardaí had their lies destroyed” because “once you’re suspended as a garda, nothing is the same again”. 

He pointed out that morale in the force in the Mid-West had collapsed, adding that “prosecutions of many criminal cases never went ahead".

Early retirement

Apart from the four acquitted and three who will not now face charges, two other gardaí only had their suspensions lifted last month. This is despite being told last year they would not face any criminal charges. Eamon O’Neill retired early during the investigation. 

One of the central questions about the whole affair is whether it was connected to an earlier investigation by the NBCI when Mr O’Neill and a colleague, Arthur Ryan, were arrested over allegations of connections to criminal elements. 

That was in 2019, but both men were subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. Following that, the NBCI then launched the highly unusual criminal investigation into the “squares”.

Earlier this month, at the Oireachtas justice committee meeting, the justice minister Jim O’Callaghan told Mr Kelly that he did believe that an inquiry was needed.