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Showing posts with label BREAKING NEWS: Dublin: Garda Ombudsman (GSOC) Officer Quits Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BREAKING NEWS: Dublin: Garda Ombudsman (GSOC) Officer Quits Post. Show all posts
The Garda Ombudsman Commission has said it has been unable to identify the individual responsible for disclosing confidential information from its office which its chairman described as a breach of security.
A confidential report by a British security firm which last year swept the GSOC offices for bugs was leaked to The Sunday Times earlier this year.
Chairman Simon O'Brien told an Oireachtas Committee that only seven people had had access to that report and promised an investigation.
In a statement today, GSOC said it would not be publishing the report on the matter which was drawn up by Senior Counsel Mark Connaughton because it says it contains personal data which is impossible to redact.
The ombudsman also said that it agrees with the report's conclusion that it would be difficult to identify any further useful measures and said therefore no further action is intended.
The commission also says it has taken the matter very seriously and put in place several internal measures to enhance the security of information in relation to GSOC's business.
Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald refused to indicate if she was satisfied with the progress of the investigation, and said GSOC would be commenting on the issue this afternoon.
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 theGarda 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.
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.
