Garda porn bottleneck - Capabilities undermined

Yesterday’s court revelation that there are delays of up to four years in investigating cases around possession of child pornography is yet another startling indication of dysfunction in our public life.

Cork District Court heard of a case where computers seized have been stuck in a Garda forensics bottleneck for four years.

Garda authorities will inevitably blame a shortage of resources for this unacceptable situation. They will not however refer to the arrangements that allow very many gardaí retire in their early or mid 50s thereby reducing the force’s capacity to complete work like this. This seems another indulgence we can no longer afford.