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Update 6.10pm
SIMON O’BRIEN, THE chairman of the Garda Ombudsman (GSOC), is to resign at the end of the month to take up a role in the UK.
O’Brien’s resignation was confirmed in a statement from GSOC this afternoon and brings to an end his controversial three-year spell as chairman of the much-maligned watchdog which was at the centre of many of the recent controversies related to the gardaí.
O’Brien will leave his post on 30 January to take up a role as chief executive of the Pensions Ombudsman Service in the UK on 2 February.
“I have been in Ireland for five years in two posts. This is a significant opportunity and I am looking forward to the new challenge. The new post will bring me back home to be with my wife and young family in London,” O’Brien said in a brief statement today.
O’Brien is a former chief superintendent at London’s Metropolitan Police and also worked for the Association of Chief Police Officers in the UK before taking up a role as deputy to the chief inspector of an Garda Síochána in 2010.
He became chair of GSOC in December 2011, but his tenure became mired in controversy last year after the Sunday Times reported in February that a surveillance operation was used to hack into the communications system at the Garda Ombudsman’s office.
Months of debate, Oireachtas committee hearings, claim and counter claim followed before it was eventually found by a state inquiry, led by retired judge John Cooke, that there was no evidence that the GSOC headquarters was bugged by the gardaí – or anybody else.
Following the controversy the former justice minister Alan Shatter, who lost his job over garda controversies in May, called on O’Brien and his fellow commissioners to step down.
He insisted in September that their positions were no longer tenable in the wake of the bugging controversy and subsequent investigations.
Speaking under Dáil privilege, Shatter said: “From the start of this affair, GSOC have sought to cover up and keep secret a disturbing level of incompetence and failure to comply with their statutory obligations.
“This is unacceptable and it is contrary to the public interest that GSOC Commissioners remain in place and that these matters are left unresolved, in particular in light of new and additional GSOC powers proposed in forthcoming legislation.”
Later that month Shatter’s successor Frances Fitzgerald expressed confidence in the senior membership of GSOC.
Today, she thanked him for the “important and valuable contributions” he has made in his roles in GSOC and the Garda Inspectorate. She also wished him “all the best in his endeavours in his new career”.
First published 14.58pm
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Dundalk will soon be one giant call centre.
Weeeellll hey that’s claaass
WITH PLENTY OF WORKERS CROSSING THE BOARDER TO WORK IN THESE CALL CENTRES… as usual…
must be the Dundalk accent
Great to see ‘Good News’ making headlines again, hopefully the recession tide is turning for the man on the ground!
sales sense-customer engagement sounds like cold callers. these jobs would be as dependable as a wet toilet roll
Jobs jobs jobs!!!
Good to see a jobs with a proper weeks wage for a proper weeks work.150 jobs over 3 years.Nearly one a week over 3 years.Well done Enda and Co,doing a great job.
The tide is turning folks.Ireland is great again…..
Hooray….!!
- (only 799,860 more jobs & we’re flying.)
It’s a start. Good news is good.
More call center jobs woopidy do Enda!!!!!!!!
Some people would love a job in a call centre.
Office work, that doesn’t require a high skill set or qualifications is very important in the labour market.
Not everyone can have a masters.
That may be true but try going for an interview without a college on your C.V.
Yea yea yea get a nice IDA grant to open here pay some wages for a couple of years then they’ll feck off to India or pakistan when the grant runs out….
Good news yes, but how come it’s always “over the next three years”, does that mean they wont be announced next year again to bump the figures up, or that jobs will be down next year as they’ve already taken. The spin in this type of announcement is appauling as it gets so many hopes up just to be kicked down again, and whoo hoo for minimum wage again….. but its good for the jobs that are here and now though (the actual real ones) when we need them most and good luck for the applicants
I’d be extremely hesitant to describe Lifes2Good as a “healthcare company”.
“Snake Oil Salesman” might be more appropriate!
Salessence…..where have i heard of them before ;)
Anyone over 30 and didn’t go to university or college need not apply, same o same o from this government. When will the real work as in manufacturing come here? Manufacturing here creates exports that causes the government to reduce borrowing because money is coming into the country???
thanks enda :)
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