It “beggars belief” that the Minster for Justice Frances Fitzgerald and the Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan were unaware of details of allegations made a year ago that gardai had concealed witnesses to the shooting dead of a man by a Garda member.
That was the claim by Clare Daly TD (Ind) in response to comments made by Ms Fitzgerald and Commissioner O’Sullivan.
Speaking to the media at the annual conference of the Garda Representative Association (GRA) in Tullow, Co Carlow, they both called on the Dáil deputy to back up the allegations she made under Dáil privilege last month by making a statement of complaint to the Garda or Garda Ombudsman Commission.
However, Ms Daly said she was not a witness and therefore had no information to pass on and no statement to make.
She also pointed out a person who believes they have information had already passed it on to Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
“I didn’t make the allegation, it was made to the Taoiseach over a year ago by the person who actually has the information,” Ms Daly said.
Though Mr Kenny had passed it for review to a process established within the Department of Justice to investigate a range of complaints around gardai and policing, the person making the allegations has had no contact from anyone investigating the matter.
Ms Daly felt that delay was worthy of raising in the Dáil, adding she had not sought to bring the specific details of the case into the public domain.
She was raising the delay in the investigation and the lack of “even one phone call in the space of a year since the allegation was made” rather than making any allegations herself.
“The Taoiseach knows exactly what the allegation is and it has been passed to the Department of Justice, so they know about it too.”
Ms Daly also said she found it “incredible” that Commissioner O’Sullivan did not know about the detail of the allegations and that Frances Fitzgerald was in a similar position, feeling the need to request a report into the matter a year after the information came to light.
“It beggars belief that they were not privy to this information,” she said.
“What kind of a process is this if a case with serious allegations and sent by the Taoiseach himself has not generated one phone to the complainant in a year?
“Wouldn’t you think they would see the allegation and even Google to see what the case was about?
“And wouldn’t you think somebody would at least pick up the phone (to the complainant) and at least make contact with them?”
Ms Daly said the responses given by Commissioner O’Sullivan and Ms Fitzgerald at the GRA conference were “part of a narrative” to suggest that she and a number of other TDs who had raised allegations against the Garda under Dáil privilege had “acted in a caviller way”.
“I would argue we’ve been responsible in raising these issues; we’ve raised things that some people don’t want to hear and there is that narrative now being pushed to suggest that we’ve acted in a way that has been reckless.”
Ms Daly on April 15th during leader’s questions in the Dáil asked the Taoiseach about progress in the investigation.
“This is a question regarding a person who contacted the Taoiseach last year and told him he had information on gardaí being present in a room when a civilian was shot by gardaí and being ordered by his superiors to say he was not present,” she said at the time.
Mr Kenny told her in his reply that 300 cases were under review and that those carrying out the series of investigations had not completed their work.
