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DURING A ROBUST round of questioning of Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan and two members of her senior management, Clare Daly used her own personal experience with traffic policing to examine the current scandals around fixed charge notices and breath testing.
At a Justice Committee hearing this morning, the Independents4Change TD was trying to establish a correct timeline on when the gardaí knew there was an issue with court summons – and when they fixed it.
According to Deputy Commissioner John Twomey, an IT solution implemented in May 2016 ensured that it is “not technically possible to issue a summons for a Fixed Charge Notice [offence] without [a FCN first being issued]“.
“I wonder how you could tell me then that I was summonsed to the CCJ on 12 December last year for an alleged motoring offence which allegedly took place in March of 2016 where no FCN was issued,” Daly countered.
“I don’t think I’m that special, to be honest. I know it’s a fact because I’ve got a few FCNs before, I know what they look like and if I had got it, I would have known.
Coincidentally, on receipt of a FCN that I actually did get in October last year, I was in Naas Court and met some people there who were there precisely because they hadn’t got a FCN and had been summonsed to court.
“They spent a day in that court and because they were pleading not guilty, the judge adjourned and they had to come back another day. Now that was in October and December of last year.”
Daly then questioned if the committee could believe what garda management was telling it, given the contradictory evidence directly available to its members.
“The point here is that we have – the public in particular – have the reality posed in front of them where they cannot trust information coming from senior garda management,” she continued.
Twomey noted that a FCN being issued does not ensure it will be received.
“Are you saying all those cases are on the fault of An Post?” Daly asked.
Twomey did not put blame on the postal service, but did say that gardaí are now confident in their current IT systems.
O’Sullivan said that Daly’s specific experience would be examined – and that management would be “happy” if it identified further issues.
Apology
The embattled Commissioner faced questions from all committee members this morning about the two current controversies dogging An Garda Síochána.
Making a statement on the FCN problems and the revelations that almost one million breath tests recorded never actually happened, she apologised for “the grave mistakes and wrongdoing during the last decade that have led to the two controversies we are here today to discuss”.
“Those mistakes and wrongdoings are unacceptable in policing terms, unacceptable in ethical terms, unacceptable in terms of public trust, and, most critically, unacceptable to the advocacy and support groups involved in road safety and to those who were wrongly brought to court,” she continued.
They have raised serious issues about how we managed the service, how certain Gardaí operated on the ground and their supervision. Given the scale of these issues, they can’t simply be blamed on one individual or one area. It is a collective failure. From top down to bottom up.
She also conceded that further problems with the force’s data could emerge in the future.
“When we turn over stones, we will find things that are wrong,” she said. However, she noted that she has no indications on what areas within the organisation could be problematic.
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Think you will find they are not. You think the public finances are bad now. They would be orders of magnitude worse off in the case of unity. Add that to the almost certainty of a civil war in the North. Thanks but no thanks.
@Dave Connolly: agreed, there would definitely be a civil war if that happens anytime soon. As much as it would be nice to have a united ireland, I’d much prefer to be separated if it ment innocent lives saved.
@Dave Connolly: David McWilliams says the exact opposite to you. He says that Ireland would thrive with unity. No disrespect to you Dave but I would take the word of a very accurate economist such as McWilliams over you any day of the week.
@Dave Connolly: “Economist and commentator David McWilliams has said Brexit has made a united Ireland far more likely, and that reunification represented a huge opportunity for the North with no downside.”
https://irishplan.net/reunification-now-more-likely-represents-a-huge-opportunity-mcwilliams/
@James Beattie: In fairness, McWilliams hasn’t been right about anything since 2008
@James Beattie: here’s another view from the experts. It appears as though opinion is heavily divided on the cost/benefit. One thing is for sure, the security budget would go through the roof. Employment would also be interesting with 1 in 3 people working in the UK public sector.
@James Beattie:
There would have to be a peaceful transition to unity to have any economic effect.
@Mickety Dee: Any examples to back up your comment? He was ignored by FF in 2008 and look what happened, the biggest crash in almost a century resulting in the taxpayers bailing out a banking system that was allowed run riot.
@Mickety Dee: I presume you are trying to wind a few up on here. McWilliams is one of the leading economists in not only ireland but Europe. He is bang on the money.
@Dave Connolly: as long as the people of the North continue to vote for the parties of conflict ( SF and the DUP) the North will always be a sectarian pit. Until the likes of the peace Wall (gas a Wall built to stop two communities from attacking each other called a peace wall) Any one who thinks a united ireland would work is mad
@James Beattie: we get it, you wear David McWilliams pyjamas to bed at night.
@John Moloney: better than wearing a Union Jack one like you kiddo
@Chris Mc: I always knew I was mad.
@James Beattie: why? have you a problem with people choosing to wear union jacks? its the small comments like this that show just how difficult any unification would be.
@alan: never said I have a problem with it. More reading and less commenting would suit you much better
FF & FG have had 100 years of power between them in Ireland, wouldn’t it be nice if they put that ‘experience’ to use by entering their own candidates into future elections in the six counties to make a difference or would they prefer to remain on the fence? Surely there are members & supporters of both parties who would prefer our island to be united rather than occupied. Just throwing it out there.
@GrumpyAulFella: Think it’s 1 in 2 up the north.
@Dave Connolly: it’s a century or two before the bigots on both sides are out of the picture, by that stage we’ll be abandoning low lying land cause of rising sea levels and taking in millions of migrants cause of unlivable areas of the planet, Irish unity won’t be a priority then survival will be.
@Pat Barry: that’s even more scary.
Good. Nor should they. We’ve enough problems with 26 counties never mind the sectarianism rife in the other 6.
Thousands of people aren’t waking up at all, thanks to the SF and Unionist murder gangs.
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