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Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Confusion over last-minute change in leadership of new garda probe

The lack of clarity about who was involved in the internal investigation was highlighted by TD Mick Wallace when he questioned the Commissioner this week.

THE SENSE OF frustration felt by the group of politicians in Committee Room 1 in the Houses of the Oireachtas was tangible on Thursday morning.

It was their chance to question senior gardaí, including Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan, about revelations that some one million breath tests that never happened were somehow recorded on the force’s internal system. Though garda management has made itself available for questioning a number of times since the news broke nine days ago – and issued several statements – it is no clearer how this happened.

On Thursday, there was added confusion over an apparent last-minute change in leadership of the internal investigation that is supposed to find out exactly that.

The appointment of Superintendent Pat Murray

On 23 March, journalists were invited to the Dublin Metropolitan Headquarters in Harcourt Square so they could be briefed on the breath test scandal and the discovery that hundreds of thousands of summonses had been wrongly issued to drivers.

Among the barrage of questions thrown at Assistant Commissioner Michael Finn by the group of baffled reporters was a request for information about what exactly was being done now to find out how this happened and which individuals were responsible for it.

An Garda Síochána An Garda Síochána

“We have appointed somebody, a Superintendent, to carry out what I’d call a fact finding investigation to establish exactly what went wrong. That will be preliminary to… if we were going to initiate some sort of discipline investigation. We do what we call a fact finding investigation and somebody has been appointed to do that. That’s to look back at the overall bigger picture,” Finn replied.

During the questions and answers session, a reporter asked:

You’ve already appointed a Superintendent?

We have.

Can you tell us who it is?

Superintendent Pat Murray from Athlone.

What resources does he have? Is he on his own, does he have a team?

We will give him all the information and all the data we have that will assist him with that. It is going to take him some time to do that, it will take him time and he will need time doing it.

That was Thursday afternoon. Two days later, on Saturday afternoon, the Garda Commissioner’s first statement on the scandal was released.

In it, she said she had directed newly promoted Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan and a team to:

…undertake a further detailed analysis of the work undertaken to date; consider whether any further remedial actions need to be taken; and confirm whether the issues identified were the result of individual or system failings.

She said An Garda Síochána will provide an initial report to the Policing Authority on this work within one month.

‘Yes or no?’

Fast forward to Thursday morning this week in Committee Room 1. It was Mick Wallace’s turn to grill O’Sullivan, and he wanted to know who, in fact, was conducting the investigation.

“Did Superintendent Pat Murray have an involvement in the internal enquiry?” he asked.

The Commissioner looked to the chair Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin for direction, stating she did not think it “appropriate to speak about individual members”.

Wallace, on request, rephrased the query: “I just read a press report that Superintendent Pat Murray was actually involved in it, but I don’t know if it’s true or not. And I just wanted the Commissioner to confirm if yes or no…”

Following further queries, Wallace was told by the chair to “be careful” in the context of warnings given at the outset of all meetings in relation to privilege.

“The Commissioner is free to answer as she deems appropriate, and if the matter is inappropriate in her opinion I will accept that is the case and we will move on,” Ó Caoláin added.

In her response to Wallace’s line of questioning, the Commissioner said:

I thank the chairman. What I can tell the committee here today is that Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan is appointed to conduct the investigation and to establish the facts.

The back and forth continued.

“So the Commissioner is saying Pat Murray is not involved?” the Wexford TD repeated, at which the chair interjected again.

I think, with respect, the Commissioner does not believe that is appropriate in the context that the Deputy has raised and I am respecting that. Is that the Commissioner’s position?

“Yes,” O’Sullivan confirmed.

“The Assistant Commissioner is in charge of the investigation, there is nobody else in charge of the investigation.”

Wallace, again: “So he [Pat Murray] is not involved in it?”

The chair cut short O’Sullivan’s reply, directing Wallace to move on.

“I will move on. I realise it’s hard to get answers to questions.”

Another unanswered question: Why was there a sudden change in leadership of the new garda probe?

‘Inappropriate’

TheJournal.ie sought to clarify this point with An Garda Síochána, asking whether a mistake had been made at the first press conference about the scandal during which Pat Murray was named as the person appointed to conduct the investigation, or whether he had at that time been appointed but a last-minute change was made.

We also asked, if this was the case, why a change in leadership of the investigation had taken place 48 hours after his appointment was announced.

The Garda Press Office said: “Assistant Commissioner O’Sullivan has been appointed to investigate all elements surrounding these issues. As this is an ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate to discuss any matters pertaining to this investigation at this time.”

After a second query seeking a response about the change, a spokesperson said:

“Pat Murray was doing the initial fact-finding. That is now superseded by Michael O’Sullivan. He has taken it over.”

They said Murray had done a “brief dipping the toe” and that his work had now been passed up to the Assistant Commissioner to aid his investigation. They clarified that O’Sullivan had been appointed to lead the probe as he is a more senior officer.

Read: Questions, unanswered: Scandals are ‘at best, incompetence and, at worst, deception’>

Read: Frances Fitzgerald claims she only found out about scale of garda scandal after press conference>

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24 Comments
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    Mute S K
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:03 AM

    I don’t have a problem with ads in theory as I understand that’s how we get stuff for free. The problem is when the ads are so intrusive that it makes it next to impossible to enjoy the content, then I’m going to block them. Having thirty second non skippable ads on YouTube after every second video, or ads with crazy flash videos, or articles split over multiple pages to increase advertising space drove me to install ad block.

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    Mute little jim
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:13 AM

    Then the content is rubbish, and hence the problem.

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    Mute An Observer
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:55 AM

    *THIS IS NOT A JOKE*

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    190
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    Mute Ciaran
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:05 AM

    what about likes of greedy rte that we already pay TV licence put have to sit threw full screen pop up ads and about 5 ads before a program even starts!

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    Mute Darach Malone
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:17 AM

    your TV licence fee doesn’t even begin to cover rte costs. without the ads they would be extinct.

    24
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    Mute Sean J. Troy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:16 AM

    The RTE and BBC license fees are very similar. The Beeb has no ads and is arguably the best content creator in the world. Yes, it has a much bigger license base. But it’s network of stations and channels both in the UK and abroad is much bigger than RTE.

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    Mute Ciarán
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    Sep 12th 2015, 1:20 PM

    The beeb also have 16 times the population to collect the licence fee from

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    Mute cooperguy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 2:53 PM

    @Sean, you have to be joking! The BBC license fee is massively more revenue than what RTE get. If you want an ad free rte you would need need a massive license fee increase.

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    Mute Sean Oige
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    Sep 12th 2015, 5:21 PM

    They should get rid of the ads so! RTE an absolute waste of money….

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    Mute cooperguy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 6:11 PM

    why exactly, their viewing numbers says different. Your not supposed to like everything they do. that’s the point of public broadcasting, not everything has to appeal to a mass market

    5
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    Mute Fergus O'Neill
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:18 AM

    I’ve had just over 200,000 ads blocked in just over a year. 200,000 – there’s your reason for installing a blocker.

    120
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    Mute Mark Malone
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    Sep 12th 2015, 12:28 PM

    156,742 for me in around the same length of time. Ludicrous amount.

    31
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    Mute Thomas Mac
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:59 AM

    I wouldn’t be able to watch my favourite online sports channel only for adblocker plus .

    62
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    Mute Enda O Brien
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:49 AM

    No problem with subscription models i have a few but you would want to be providing a good service.

    48
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    Mute Ciarán
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:00 AM

    The take a whitelist approach, an adblocker can be quite useful for security reasons browsing websites you’re in familiar with. However websites I visit frequently will get whitelisted as long as there are no autoplay video ads. More broadly the issue is very similar to that of music, film and game piracy. A generation of people now seem to find the idea of artists and writers being paid for the content they produce completly alien. They also refuse to acknowledge this act as stealing

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    Mute Enda O Brien
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:02 AM

    Honestly the way the music industry was so explotive of people when the likes of napster did not exist was the reason noone had a problem with using the likes of napster.

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    Mute Ciarán
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:29 AM

    I’m not old enough to have been exploited by the music industry pre Napster I wasnt even ten when they got sued and there are people only about 5 or years younger than me who have never paid for music in their lives

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    Mute Sean McGovern
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:07 AM

    I stopped using Vodafone because of the amount of ads they force you to watch on YouTube and other web sites.

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    Mute Andy Cahalan
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:27 AM

    What did I just read?

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    Mute Sean J. Troy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:10 AM

    I don’t mind ads. I do mind bad, poorly targeted ads. I would have thought in 2015 the might of Google would have figured out that making me sit through a few seconds of advertising to watch a ten second cat video is stupid. Especially when they’ve been collecting data on me for years and haven’t figured out that maybe an ad for L’Oréal shampoo is probably the wrong product to target me with. Some of the American services are the worst though. They put ads in services that you actually pay for like NFL and MLB live streaming and then the ads are exclusively targeted at American audiences. Absolutely pointless.

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    Mute Rochelle
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:29 AM

    I’m entirely fine with web based businesses failing to succeed and the internet going back to being mainly driven by hobbyists. Those motivated by passion and interest rather than monetary gain.

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    Mute Search Eagle
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    Sep 13th 2015, 10:12 AM

    “Passion” doesn’t cover the massive costs required to host the videos you enjoy. An awful lot of hobbyist content relies on tools that are made free by advertising revenue.

    But I am also fine with web-based businesses failing because people won’t click their ads. However, the internet won’t change into the passion and interest haven you seek, instead people with the resources and money will consolidate their control by introducing other paid models. See, for example: blip which deleted the videos and kicked out all its hobbyist content creators to focus on its 4000 stronger more commercially lucrative partners.

    There’s also nothing wrong with seeking monetary gain for doing something you enjoy. Why should the people who produce the content you consume be required to do so for free?

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    Mute Michael Fallon
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:55 AM

    Is there an adblock for ipads and where can I get it?

    19
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    Mute David Ronan
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    Sep 12th 2015, 10:05 AM

    Use this, great for blocking all ads on all devices connected to your network, small bit of DIY involved but worth it http://lifehacker.com/turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-an-ad-blocker-with-a-single-co-1686093533

    14
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    Mute Life in no motion
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    Sep 12th 2015, 11:21 AM

    Block Party was working for me on ios 9 beta

    Used it on the indo site. I’ve a 6+ and the poxy ad for Ribena takes up almost all the page

    Ridonculous

    13
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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Sep 12th 2015, 12:22 PM

    I’m sick of adverts everywhere… Next toilet paper unless you use newspapers?

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    Mute Paul Murphy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 3:11 PM

    Ads are great as long as they stay in one place, don’t make any noise (unless I click on them), don’t slow down the website and don’t try to install stuff on my computer/phone/whatever.

    Otherwise yer blocked.

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    Mute Andrew McCarthy
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    Sep 12th 2015, 2:08 PM

    Worse than the distraction and delays, there’s the growing problem of malvertising — ads that are actually malicious content that can infect your browser/PC/phone without any interaction from you. Blocking flash helps a bit, but really I’ve found blocking all ads best.

    Take a look at https://blog.malwarebytes.org/malvertising-2/ for some of the most recent ones including major sites like Yahoo and MSN. Worth the risk?

    8
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    Mute Gusty McBlow
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    Sep 12th 2015, 12:50 PM

    Hosts File!

    That is all.

    6
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    Mute Jim Nielsen
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    Sep 12th 2015, 4:35 PM

    entirely agree – in my case it stops 99% of adverts and it’s a small matter to add new hosts entries when needed. the only drawback with the hosts file approach is when add sites are using https://…/ as i have seen happening with mrgreen betting and a couple more..

    2
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    Mute Pete Gibson
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    Sep 12th 2015, 3:39 PM

    It’s called “click-bait”.
    Just below this very article were:
    12 frightening facts your pilot will never tell you.
    23 facts about left-handed people.
    and surprise surprise…
    50 of the funniest cats.

    6
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    Mute Kane Abel
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    Sep 12th 2015, 9:58 AM

    Dumb logo – Really looks like AdRoil….(?) I predict failure….

    5
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    Mute ScewMadd
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    Sep 13th 2015, 2:00 PM

    This ad reminds me of this cringey video.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67ZZUSpeS4k

    1
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