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Updated: 1.25 pm
GARDA HQ IS to be the site of a meeting later today between high-ranking Gardaí and whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe.
The Garda whistleblower was invited to the talks following new claims he made over the weekend that Gardaí are still cancelling penalty points for friends and family.
Acting Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan had already ordered a full audit of all penalty points cancelled since June, when a raft of new regulations came into force.
Notably, those regulations include the centralisation of the authority to cancel points at the Fixed Charge Processing Office in Thurles.
A Garda statement yesterday said O’Sullivan had forwarded McCabe’s most recent claims to Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald and requested an investigation.
The Minister agreed to the request and referred the allegations to the Garda Ombudsman Commission, who will now independently examine them.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice told TheJournal.ie that the new allegations had been sent to Fitzgerald “last week.”
The Minister, conscious of the need for continued public confidence in the integrity of the fixed charge notice system, and of the desirability of an independent investigation of the allegations in the public interest, referred the allegations to GSOC, also last week.
The Minister is not aware of the identity of the person who made the allegations, and the Garda Commissioner will liaise directly with GSOC on the matter.
RTE reports that McCabe’s new allegations relate to off-duty members cancelling points after falsely claiming they were driving Garda cars at the time of the offences.
John Devitt of Transparency International Ireland told RTE’s Morning Ireland that some of the penalty point cancellation claims had been forwarded to McCabe by a number of other Gardaí.
He added that the allegations related to a “significant number” of points being cancelled on spurious grounds, including “no known address” being listed, despite the points pertaining to serving Garda members.
Speaking to RTÉ’s News at One this afternoon, Fitzgerald said a “careful and comprehensive” investigation into the claims would took place.
What we have at present is a number of suggestions that the whole question of penalty points should be looked at again even though those new guidelines are in place.
Now what we have to do is investigate precisely what is being said, investigate it comprehensively and carefully and see what exactly will emerge.
The Fine Gael TD was at Templemore Garda College this afternoon to welcome 100 new recruits to the force – the first new batch since 2009.
There, O’Sullivan pleaded with reporters to avoid rushing to judgment:
To be fair, we are working with the information that has been made available to us.We are examining that information and we will establish exactly what the veracity or otherwise of that information is.
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Well maybe the reporter just couldn’t keep a straight face
@Jake Kelly: lol!
More important he has burned down millions acres of the Amazon over 100% increase on last year and this will impact our climate the world over and still EU imports beef from Brazil.
@GO GREEN: yep – which is curious, considering that Beef could be supplied by the Irish Market, 1. Reducing the EU’s carbon footprint, 2. Supporting a fellow EU Nation’s Economy, 3. Securing fiscal security for Irish Beef Farmers, & finally, 4. Not compromising on quality of food for a marginally cheaper product, to the detriment of EU Jobs (Irish Beef Farmers).
Can you think of more reasons to support EU Industries? Write them below!
If you’re unhappy with beef imports into the EU from Brasil, you know what to do! Raise your concerns with your MEP.
Here, you’ll find the link to the contact details for your constituency’s MEP – put them to work!
Disgusting behaviour from a head of state. Politics really is the gutter these days.
@Ebeneezer Goode: reflection of harder times to come with protectionist nationalist parties getting into power everywhere.
@Monty Donotno: “getting into power everywhere” Monty, that has to be a contender for the sweeping statement of the year prize!
@Dom Layzell: Dom, doesn’t it bother you that this sort of behaviour from politicians has been linked with a rise in hate crimes? It feeds it, it encourages it, it gives it oxygen.
How would he know?
LGBT+ people deserve to live happy lives free from prejudice. For that to happen, we must all step up to help bring #homophobia, #biphobia and #transphobia to an end.
If you see it, #call #It #Out
@UCC Social Democrats Society: respect for all phobias
@UCC Social Democrats Society: #Arachnophobia, when you see a spider #Call #It #Out
@NPC4452347: are human rights a joke to you x
@UCC Social Democrats Society: Hay everyone gets stick, if your fat or skinny, tall or small, blond or red haired, you get stick and all normally from the exact same people? But there are some who are emotionally immature sociopaths who confuse pure psych hatred with banter but I think PC correctness might be fuelling the right wing in society due in part to snowflakes being over sensitive. But all the nuts are copying Trump as that might make them re-electable, not due to the crazy stuff they say but by being able to make headlines all the time? Hay Capt Chainsaw said to a woman reporter who was gay that he could cure her of it, it doesn’t mean he believes what he says but he knows that those who shout enough end up getting what they want and that is popularity???
@UCC Social Democrats Society: the worst are the biphobes! They’re disgracefully cis-normative. Hope they rot in their unsafe spaces.
Projection, much?
That was a very odd and irrelevant response.
Where did Captain Chainsaw keep it? lol.
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