BREAKING NEWS: Dublin: Garda Ombudsman (GSOC) Officer Quits Post: * NEW UPDATE:

A spokesperson for the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has confirmed that an Officer of the Commission has tender their resignation this weekend.  The spokesperson confirmed that the individual concerned was not one of the three GSOC commissioners.They would not confirm who had resigned.

*A senior member at the Garda Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) has resigned.

The official, understood to be director of investigations Ray Leonard, submitted his resignation on Saturday.

Mr Leonard led the GSOC probe into claims that the watchdog's offices were under surveillance, which was the subject of the Cooke report.

The recently published report was critical of the ombudsman's office and has brought pressure on the commissioners and staff.

GRA representative for Dublin's South Central Division Damien McCarthy said he wanted more resignations to follow at GSOC over a number of issues, "in particular the manner in which the Cook report, for want of a better word, disclosed certain facts".

He added: "As a result of that publication, the committee here in the south central have lost all confidence in the current commissioners. 

The conduct of that investigation proved to be unfair and it failed to address all the issues concerning independence and impartiality.

"We believe gardaí were not being treated in a fair and impartial manner."

MORE TO FOLLOW: as we get updates:

Simon O'Brien was speaking at the publication of GSOC's annual report 2013

*The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission chairman, Simon O'Brien has said it is now time to move on from the Cooke report.

*NEW UPDATE: Go To Link:
www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/gsoc-deputy-chief-lifts-the-lid-on-failures-at-the-ombudsman-hq-30409357.html
Speaking at the publication of its annual report 2013, he refused to answer questions from the media about the report, which found no evidence of bugging at the GSOC offices.

He said the Government was happy to accept the report and GSOC may come before the Oireachtas in the future to discuss the report, so they want to keep any further comments for then.

After the Cooke report was published GSOC said questions remained in relation to the bugging allegations.

Asked about the resignation of a senior official in GSOC, the commissioners said they do not comment on staff members and this was not the right forum for that.

Statistics in the annual report reveal that there were over 2,000 complaints made by members of the public, alleging over 5,200 cases of garda misconduct.

Over a third of allegations related to abuse of authority, followed by neglect of duty, assault and discourtesy.

Outside of Dublin the largest number complaints from the public were in Tipperary.

While the largest number of referrals from the commissioner to GSOC related to Donegal.

The most common outcome of complaints was that there was no further investigation.

In 18 cases the matter was referred to the DPP for prosecution, in 17 cases gardaí were cautioned.

In 2013, 41 cases were referred to GSOC by the garda commissioner, a fall from 72 the year before.

GSOC said there is no immediate explanation for this trend but it intends to explore it with An Garda Síochána.

GSOC noted that there are encouraging signs in terms of information exchange with gardaí and said communication has been good with the interim garda commissioner.

In the past GSOC has complained that garda compliance was directly affecting its ability to deliver on its objectives, it recently renegotiated protocols with the gardaí, but now wants that enshrined in law.

Keywords: gsoc, cooke report, simon o brien 

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Keywords: gsoc, garda síochána ombudsman commission