SIMON O’BRIEN, Chairman of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) says he has “no intention of resigning” nor do any of his commissioner colleagues.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland about the investigative report into a Sunday Times article on the alleged bugging of the GSOC headquarters, he said that there was “no evidence” that the the 15 people interviewed for the report leaked information.
The report, compiled by Mark Connaughton SC, was unable to confirm the source of ‘bugging’ leak.
Excerpts of report
The full report has not been released, only excerpts of it were issued last night.
O’Brien said the report found that no one with direct responsibility for the bugging investigation leaked information.
He clarified that all three commissioners were part of the interview process for the report and that those with direct responsibility for the investigation does include the commissioners.
O’Brien said that details disclosed in Sunday Times article does show that content was “prepared with some assistance” from someone within the security sweep investigation, but reiterated that the report found that none of the 15 GSOC interviews found any evidence that they disclosed information.
Moving on
He said that GSOC had learned from the affair and they “wanted to move on”.
“We learn from what has gone on in the past and from that you build for the future,” said O’Brien, adding that he wanted the public and gardaí to have confidence in their service which he said is “important and impartial”.
“We have learned from what happened, we are moving forward,” he added, stating that the organisation has the confidence of the public and the current minister for justice.
O’Brien said he had no intention of stepping down from his position, adding that there was “positive legislative change” on the way and “I want to be there to see that through”.
I am an honourable man… I want to continue to lead this organisation through this difficult period.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say