Garda failure is more than human error

It is not good enough for Justice Minister Michael McDowell and a garda spokesperson to dismiss as “human error” the failure of the gardaí to act on information relating to an international child pornography ring.

It is unbelievable that when the Austrian authorities alerted them through the Interpol office at garda headquarters six months ago, the response this week was a complete denial that they had been alerted.

That was quickly followed by an acknowledgement that they had received the alert concerning 2,360 people in 77 states, and two of the suspected computers, or IP addresses, were Irish-based.