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GARDA COMMISSIONER NÓIRÍN O’Sullivan says there is “no single cause” that led to almost one million roadside breath tests being officially recorded despite never taking place.
O’Sullivan, together with her senior officers, has made her first appearance before the Policing Authority since the scandals surrounding Garda breath tests and court penalties first broke in late March, at Dublin Castle this morning.
The Commissioner avoided specific answers while being questioned by the authority’s members for the most part.
She said that the issues surrounding breath test recordings was “an issue that we identified ourselves”.
“When an organisation is going through a radical overhaul, it’s inevitable that we will identify good practice and weak practice. This was weak practice. But we mustn’t forget that the overall objective is to save lives, and to improve road-user behaviour,” she said.
O’Sullivan said that she is appointing Assistant Commissioner Michael Finn as a dedicated traffic commissioner in order to shore up the processes surrounding such data recording.
Asked as to how the sheer scale of the false breath tests had been missed by Garda management, O’Sullivan said that it is “too early to arrive at any definitive conclusion as to what led to this”.
“We will get to the bottom to how those figures did not alert local management,” she said.
The indications are that there were a number of factors. Having said that, it is simply not good enough.
Authority member Maureen Lynott suggested that, citing the fact that there was a 495% level of over-reporting in the Dublin West Garda division, it’s a mystery as to how “that kind of distortion did not catch anybody’s attention”.
“It is not reassuring, this business with the breath tests,” she added. “Surely interrogating such data is a basic management function?”
“It’s important that we get to the root cause of the problem, and to emphasise that there is no single cause,” O’Sullivan replied.
We’ve raised it with the chief superintendents and sergeants and inspectors, and everyone is being asked to account for their figures and as to why they didn’t flag with them.
Deputy Commissioner John Twomey added that “a number of things have been done in the last number of years with regard to data collection and classification”. “We need to deal with all the facts in this,” he said.
Authority member Judith Gillespie then asked Assistant Commissioner Finn whether, given the discrepancies seen with breath test statistics, he could be certain that the force’s statistics with regard to fatal road accidents are accurate.
“I’d have no question at all that our road traffic statistics are accurate,” Finn replied.
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Shocking stuff this,rip
Garda appeal for public information – aka – Help us out when we need you. Other than that, we are fully justified in ripping you off with penalty points on perfectly good stretches of road with low limits, we’re justified in giving you a bad and condescending attitude at checkpoints and generally being unhelpful with any crime you report.
But please help us out when we’re under the spotlight.
Jaysus mick, the local constabulary must have done a real number on you somewhere along the way.
Must agree! We were robbed before and had to find and retrieve our own items. Hmmm. And we’re then asked to name the culprits as they had robbed a few neighbours also!!
I live about 15 doors away from where this happened. Its around the corner but about 15terraced houses away. There are 2 large cctv cameras pointing in the direction of the back of the eatate. Ive seen no police on my street all day and none yesterday also. Im sure they know what they are doing though!!!!!
Did you think of ringing them and offering this information or are you waiting for them to call and ask you?
rural ireland is now living very much in fear because the entire police and court systems suffers with apathy anger and as a group are only interested in themselves and the cartel its them and us….R.I.P. John
Which cartel would that be Harry? The Cali cartel or the Medellin cartel?
Dublin be f@#ked
⬆ Moron
I’m truly shocked and saddened as I grew up in Ormond square and lived there for the best part of 25 years. I’m out about as long as that man is in so didn’t know him but pray for his family today.
News has to happen! Generally its stories from the recent past.rip
How many stabbings is that in Dublin in the last 2 weeks?! Four? Shotgun city is now stab city. And how people used to slate limerick with this stab city tag is laughable by comparison.
According to a dublin judge stabbings are a daily occurrence in dublin, according to a consultant, st james hospital treats 1,000 stab victims a year, not to mention tallaght and the rest of dublins hospitals.
5,000 stabbings a year in dublin wouldn’t be an overly expansive figure.
But then Dublin was always stab city, the dublin media just projected it on to limerick.
Is this yesterday’s news.
It’s a follow onto the story. Colladh Samh John
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