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Updated 11pm
A RETIRED HIGH Court judge is to review the issues surrounding claims that the offices of the Garda Ombudsman (GSOC) were placed under surveillance in an effort to bring clarity to the issue, the government announced earlier today.
The news follows a Cabinet meeting this morning. The terms of reference and the judge to be appointed to lead the review have yet to be finalised but a report is expected by April.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the terms of reference will be set by Justice Minister Alan Shatter with advice from the Attorney General and the judge will report their findings “within eight weeks”.
He confirmed that the inquiry will not take place under the 2004 Commission of Inquiries Act – legislation the opposition parties have said should be used.
During Leaders’ Questions, Kenny said that “all of the documentation, all of the technical reports” will be made available to the judge in addition to expertise.
He said: “Clearly, in the requirement of clarity about the sophisticated issues, of course he’ll have the opportunity to have expert personnel explain what those complex technicalities might be.”
Reaction
In addition, ministers have agreed that the Oireachtas Justice and Defence Committee is to review legislation concerning GSOC with a view to enhancing it.
In a statement this afternoon Justice Minister Alan Shatter said he has briefed the Cabinet “in relation to further information and documentation received from GSOC and further technical information I have received regarding the alleged surveillance of GSOC”.
“I will be addressing all of these matters in the Dáil tonight,” Shatter said, adding that he will also appear before the Oireachtas Public Oversight and Petitions Committee tomorrow afternoon.
The news has been welcomed by the Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan who said in a statement: “An Garda Síochána will co-operate fully with the Judge’s examination.”
But the Garda Ombudsman stopped short of welcoming the inquiry, saying: “In light of the Government’s very recent announcement of its intention to appoint a retired High Court Judge to inquire into recent events involving GSOC, the Commission wishes to make no further comment at this time.”
Political reaction
Reacting to the news this afternoon, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said the terms of reference, the identity of the judge and the scope of the inquiry need to be clarified promptly and said the government has been forced into a u-turn.
“Not alone Minister Shatter, I think the entire government has been dragged kicking and screaming on this issue,” she said, saying the inquiry is a “logical step”.
Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesperson Niall Collins (below) pointed out that it is day nine of the current controversy which he said has been “hugely damaging to the independence of GSOC” and said more details of the inquiry are needed.
He was speaking as his party published a Bill which it says will strengthen the powers of the Garda Ombudsman Commission, including giving it access to the PULSE system, making the garda commissioner responsible to it, and allowing it to investigate complaints made by serving gardaí against other gardaí.
Earlier...
Earlier, McDonald claimed that in the absence of an independent inquiry into claims that the offices of the Garda Ombudsman were placed under surveillance the truth is unlikely to emerge.
The Sinn Féin TD was speaking ahead of her party's plans to table a private members' motion this evening which calls for the establishment of an independent inquiry into the matter and prior to the government announcement.
"We’re convinced at this stage that as the story has rumbled on it becomes all the more evident day-by-day of the necessity of the inquiry," McDonald told reporters at Leinster House today, saying such an inquiry should take no more than a couple of months.
She said that the Oireachtas Public Oversight and Petitions Committee, which meets with Shatter tomorrow, is unlikely to to get to the bottom of the matter as it lacks the necessary expertise.
"I think anybody who imagines that the committee will be in a position to get to the bottom of these matters is very much mistaken," she said of a committee which her own party colleague Padraig MacLochlainn chairs.
She also accused the Justice Minister Alan Shatter of having misled the Dáil and of being selective in the information he disclosed to TDs about what GSOC told him about its investigation into the surveillance claims.
First published 12.21pm
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And don’t be leaving rubbish and empty boxes at the bottle banks ye Muppets
Maybe if card board and paper recycling bins were placed beside the bottle banks instead of a usual little tiny bin it wouldn’t be a problem.
Unsupervised Cardboard compactors at bottle banks would be impractical and people would throw domestic waste into them..
Are there still people out there who do NOT recycle?
Re-cy-cling? I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that term you adorable little ragamuffin.
I live in an apartment block. There is a ‘rubbish’ room in the basement car park. There are large green bins and large black bins, practically side by side. There’s another one for glass. Posters everywhere make it crystal clear what items should go in what bin yet I always see cardboard, plastic bottles, glass etc in the black bin. Everytime. It’s free and it couldn’t be easier yet many of my neighbours just cannot be bothered…..
The exact same in my apartment block, I even sometimes find myself moving plastic and cardboard from the normal bins to the recycling ones, like an absolute eejit. I don’t know if it’s because some of the residents come from countries that don’t have organised recycling facilities, or if people are just being lazy baxtards, maybe I should get a sash and observe my neighbours, but it’s very cold down there this time of year.
Lol, love it. Reminds me of Marino church. A few more men in sashes and we’ll get the place sorted in no time.
Haha yes I have also moved the odd piece from black to green. And yes, I too suspect it’s because many of the residents hail from places where recycling isn’t common. Nevertheless, a trained chimp could understand the instructions on the posters that are, again, everywhere in the building so I can only put it down to sheer indifference.
Dublin, yes. Travellers, no. It’s not dirty, messy, ‘this is why everyone hates us’ littering. The bins are being used. Just not correctly.
I put my empty bottles in the black bin . If I have to pay to have them collected, bottlbanks and recycling are a non runner, not wasting time, effort, petrol so government can meet recycling targets and look good in europe.
Ignorant, lazy, self-serving pig. What an attitude to be proud of, “it’s someone else’s problem.”
I feck them into the river
Johns right. There’s no incentive to promote recycling in this country. It costs the consumer more to be green. The likes of Germany pay 10cent a bottle. And you bring it back to the supermarket. This country is a joke when it comes to recycling. You get charged to dispose of food waste which is composted down bagged and then sold back to you. Typical irish ways. Charged twice.
Oh , the tree huggers are after me. Well I m off to harpoon a whale, while wearing my fur farmed coat and driving my 5 litre hummer.
I have seen people throw their refuse bags into the river in the town I live. Dirty lazy ignorant people. Most of the waste could have been recycled. The most common thing found are overflowing refuse bags of cheap imported lager cans. In most cases they are left only a short distance from recycling banks. Pure laziness!
But you pay for your black bin so you’re not saving money.
Your paying anyway
Yea i live near a river too and find it very convenient
Some people do not have the brains to crush a can or cardboard box and prefer instead to leave the bin overflowing. You can take a donkey to water etc. etc.
I didn’t know you could put glass in the black bin. No more trips to the bottle bank then. Thanks.
The environment would be a good incentive, and the fact that if you do a weekly shop, at a shopping centre, or infact any stretch of retail, there will be most likely recycling bins there.
Lazy and selfish mentality.
As recyclers for many years we dont wait for the binmen to shiw up
Always makes me laugh when people get wound up by comments made by the likes of mocca Mack.
Don’t feed into people like macca mock they have nothing for doing but only trying to get a reaction from people. Ignore their stupid comments and they will go away.
Some years ago I returned to Ireland and climbed Bray Head….it was like a rubbish tip….I did hear later that the community did something about it….I do hope that Ireland has improved in caring for the environment… It is not good to be remembered as environmentally irresponsible?
Macca mock even
The glass that you all lovingly sort and pack all ends up in one big truck and is sent over the border. We have no glass making left remember? As folks are mostly too idle to recycle properly all rubbish should be dumped in the same bin and mechanically sorted which would make more sense financially and the recovered material used as is done elsewhere such as mixing glass and old tyres to make road surfaces.
You tell us where you would get a mechanical sorter which could separate curry leftovers from paper.
@Alan Lawlor, familiarise yourself with the subject and drop back later.
If your green bin is full and u still have stuff to recycle put them in white plastic bags so that the bin men can see that they are recyclable we try to recycle everything and our bin is always full and with the bags the drivers have no problem collecting them!!
I am also amazed by the number of people who think that recycling somehow discharges all responsibility we have as humans to preserve conditions on earth conducive to continued life on earth! The motto is: reduce, re-use, recycle – in that order!!! So in Germany when people return glass bottles for money, it is hopefully for re-use rather than recycling. We used to have the same here…
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