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ALAN SHATTER HAS published a report which examines why a number of penalty points were quashed by gardaí, while Commissioner Martin Callinan has noted that there is no evidence of corruption or criminal conduct.
The investigation by assistant garda commissioner, John O’Mahoney, found that the anonymous allegations made about inappropriate writing off of Fixed Charge Notices “cannot be substantiated to any degree”.
“On the basis of material examined, this examination has found no evidence to suggest any act of criminality, corruption, deception or falsification as alleged by the anonymous author,” the report outlined.
However, the probe identified three possible departures from administrative procedural guidelines in respect of terminations conducted by three of the 113 terminating officers who came within the scope of the allegations. They have been referred for further investigation to the Assistant Commissioner at Internal Affairs. The three officers who are subject to this probe terminated a total of 661 penalty point notices. A separate accusation was laid against another officer in relation to the quashing of a number of Fixed Charge Notices prior to this investigation. That matter is currently being examined and no names have been revealed.
O’Mahony said his investigation highlighted certain technical procedural breaches and inconsistencies and, in some isolated cases, possible individual failings.
Details of the allegations by a garda whistleblower were made public following claims by a number of independent TDs. Dublin deputy Joan Collins used parliamentary privilege to name three people – including a sports star, journalist and judge – who she believed had penalty points inappropriately wiped.
Allegations and data
The anonymous accusations detailed 189 penalty point notices that were quashed between 2009 and 2012. The whistleblower claimed serious corruption, destruction and erasing of records, as well as perverting the course of justice, falsification and deception.
O’Mahony’s report found that during those years, about 4.55 per cent of more than 1.46 million notices issued were terminated but this figure included some which were subject to technical issues and systems errors.
Terminations conducted by authorised officers exercising discretionary powers amounted to 2.57 per cent of the total issued. This equates to the write off of 37,384 notices in three-and-a-half-years. The number was described as “relatively small” by the document.
Excluding the 661 terminations subject to a further examination because of possible breaches by officers, 1537 terminations were looked at during the investigation.
Of those, 1,339 were found to be within the correct administrative procedures but 198 were described as “not to have been strictly” within those same processes.
Seven recipients of penalty points who subsequently had them quashed had “an identifiable family connection to a member of An Garda Síochána”.
O’Mahony said that if the author of the allegations had access to more complete information, he/she “may have found perfectly reasonable and legitimate rationale for the termination of the greater majority” of penalty points.
A number of recommendations about administrative difficulties have been made to ensure robust measures are taken to “future proof the system and to strengthen and preserve its integrity”.
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How come the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission didn’t investigate this? Seems odd that the Gardai investigated themselves..
Because this is Ireland.
Because they wasted 4 years investigating a drug dealers allegations that led nowhere. They couldn’t investigate a hole in the road.
ballocks,
the guards !wasted” the 4 years by refusing to cooperate with the ombudsman.
The guards miss the old complaints board with it’s retired gards and sympathetic solicitors.
Those days are gone.
Now the gsoc need powers to jail uncooperative gards.
GSOC state that the delays totalled 6 moths.. Not 4 years.. They needed some form of headline to distract from their useless, time and money wasting investigation.
So they blamed the Garda for delay, end of the day they found nothing wrong not even a minor breach of discipline, so delay or not the found nothing wrong.
they had no cooperation from the guards, they got a blank wall.
the gsoc must be given the powers to bring a guard before a judge and have him/her jailed for contempt.
Maybe gsoc need better staff??
Gsoc have the same powers as Gardai, they can exercise those powers if necessary. Powers of arrest, detention, searches. No new powers needed. It may well be the case that when they went looking for documents the comissioner decided they were not entitled to them and a process was started to obtain them or deny them as appropriate. I’m sure if the ombudsman had reasonable grounds to believe they were deliberately delayed they would have gone to the courts in order to get a decision on disputed rights to documents.
and why is minister of transport on tv saying its all looked after and wont happen again,, where was minster of justice,,, oops this is Ireland,,, minister of transport guess not to busy with bus strike,, hmmm,, oh they are low level driving jobs,, and the big lad out foreign running Asian company as well as bus eireann,, wonder who he knew or whose ass he licked,, oops this is ireland
Jackets
They didn’t meet a blank wall, everything requested was handed over bar 1 (one) document.
You are a tool and obviously haven’t read about the case in any depth
Paddy
Better staff?? Maybe
But if there is no corruption then the only staff who will find it are magicians or liars.
If so, then Gardai should have the same powers for any person who ‘no comments’ in an interview…
so let me get this straight
the assistant garda commissioner investigates high ranking gardai over the quashing of penalty points and finds that the accusation cannot be substantiated
mmmm……..
2 words…….
Kieran Boylan
The boylan affair was independently investigated by GSOC and not only was no criminality found, they couldn’t even find a minor breach of procedures that would justify disciplining anyone. So what’s your point?
the ombudsman doesnt seem to think so
It doesn’t matter what the omsbudsman ‘think’. It’s the file they provide to the dpp to substansiate a criminal case. The dpp gave the directions not to prosecute. It’s not what you think or even know, it’s what you can prove in court.
That’s off point.. GSOC alleged delay not corruption or criminality.
They investigated, found nothing wrong and then bitched about delay because they had just wasted four years and found nothing wrong.
do you not find it a bit wierd that senior gardai got promoted on the back off tip offs and arrests from this convicted drug dealer
Who got promoted?
And if tip offs come from decent people or sc*m bags, I won’t complain if it helps lock up more sc*m bags.
thats not my point
this guy was a known drug dealer who dealt in heroin and cocaine
he caused misery for loads of people
he trafficked drugs and sold them to dealers who he then reported to the gardai
these gardai were then promoted one on the back of these arrests
one of people who was closely involved was the garda comissioner
do you think its ok to let this guy who has destroyed so many lives off scot free because he shopped the people he sold drugs to, to the police
Who got promoted?
GSOC and DPP found no evidence of criminality.
And bogland served 5 years in prison, he did not get off scot free.
You obviously have a grudge/ gripe against the Garda. I’ll say it again GSOC investigated for four years and found NOTHING, not even a minor technical breach of procedures, but you seem to think they got it wrong.
* boylan
Btw if convicted drug dealing sc*m bag Boylan wants to rat out his suppliers or dealers then all the better… More sc*m locked up.
Yet another white wash report then?
I really need to get out of this “country”
Don’t forget to write
What?
And bring your marijuana with ya Johnny lad
11000 tickets cancelled each year, only about 200 officers have the ability to cancel them (ie access to the computer function that allows cancellation)…. That works out at 55 tickets cancelled each year by each officer, one a week, that miniscule.
Gardaí should not investigate themselves. If this is allowed to happen it could turn to corruption.
White wash
Ah sure we didn’t know what we were doing was wrong. If only we had proper training, tasers, a pay rise, bigger pensions, guns, rocket launchers, armoured cars, more time off…….puke….
Next thing you’ll want is for oliver stone to direct the movie, you’ll want some one good to play ming “the pointless” and claire “I drink whiskey for medicinal reasons before I drive” daly. I’m thinking mel gibson and lindsay lohan!!
More like Enda & Lucinda for those roles.
What about that water cannon they borrowed of PNSI let’s get them one of them too
gardai are still disgusted that claire daly was under the legal limit, what a truly pathetic bunch of cops we have.
Disgusted that she drank any amount of alcohol and drove, forget limits, don’t drink and drive..end of.
Given how it was uncovered using PULSE – As of 2012 PULSE was only in 421 of 703 Garda stations. Lord knows what happens in those areas.
U fool, the actual computers are not in every station, but everything is and has to be put on PULSE.
If a delivery driver does not follow the rules of the road and exceeds the speed limit will the Gardai just notify his employer and seek that they discipline him/her or will penalty points and a fine be issued?
Answers on a post card to the “Laws of the land do not apply to members of the Garda Club steering committee” Harcourt Street, Dublin 2.
I have a small nose and even I smell a cover up. If you don’t pay tax can you investigate yourself :) :)
What does a cover up smell like?
Are you confusing lifting the covers (cover UP) after you or you partner have farted in bed?
Can points be wiped before they get onto pulse ? Ans YES. How many guards have points I don’t ;)
Plenty of Gardai have penalty points, I personally know 3 who do.
this is another example of how our country is on the brink of self imploding. the garda commissioner is only too aware, that if he makes too much noise about the ‘actual’ level of breaches, then the rank and file will turn on him. its a very slippery slope at the moment. theres a volcano bubblin internally in the gardai, with issues of pay, resources, cull on membership and they are an angry lot.
however, they also need to understand that the people of this country expect the guardian of the peace, to be law abiding themselves and trying to sweep this under the carpet is only going to alienate the gardai more.
of course the gardai should not be investigating gardai – i thought we had moved into the 21st century and not back into the 19th.
It’s still happening across the country people, I know 2 people in the past 2 months that have had their speeding tickets quashed because they knew a guard in the local station. What was the punishment? 10 min on the bold step. The usual, unaccountable & untouchable!
“Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done.”
The most important thing is that the people see that the law applies to all.
I have lost all faith in Justice in Ireland.
Sure the Garda commissioner that carried out the investigation probably had the most to hide,every idiot in the country knows that if u know a guard he will get rid of the points for ya
If there are 3 possible breaches being referred to internal affairs then why was the report published prior to these being dealt with?
Why was the whistle blower sacked???? to shut him up????
He retired. Sunday Independent interviewed 2 weeks ago.
Whistle blowers not even interviewed !
Even the Gardai must be holding their noses at this one
think this is a bullshit story cause cops dont want to obey the dail, this has always gone on in this country and always will, but think fg insulted by gardai,, still trying to figure out why minister of transport is on news saying this is sorted,, and wont happen again,, hmmm
Shatter must be too busy appointing a few party donors to quangos or clogging up our legal system with more “independent” judges. another white wash just like the report into planning which cleared councillors of corruption and criminal conduct because of lack of evidence. We are the only banana republic in the third world that is not corrupt. I am amazed that people bother to speak out as these brave souls must know that their careers are over. Who among us would not try to have penalty points removed if we could? How many gardai have any penalty points at all on their licences? We are only seeing those cases where the information was but onto the computer system, could it be possible that many cases never even make it that far.
Leartius
“We are the only banana republic in the world that is not corrupt”
My dear Sir
If English is a challenge for you it might be better not to contribute as it is even harder for us readers to watch the mangled mess you make of it.
As far as I can see the only concrete proposal is to limit access to the Pulse system so no further whistle-blasting can take place. Just shows how seriously they are taking this matter and their priorities.
Even Reilly saw the wisdom of asking an outsider to investigate UCHG over the sad death of Mrs. Hallappanavar. Shatter allows the Gardai to investigate themselves. Best practise of course. Of course there was nothing wrong. I see no ships!! And no! Gardai should have no discretion over issues like points. If you’re done, you’re done superintendent!
How to make a set of boring statistics into a boring read
Just reporting the facts Brian :)
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