GSOC HAS STATED it has yet to receive any admissible complaints about an incident where a woman was pushed into a bollard at the weekend’s water protests.
The Ombudsman said the office had not received complaints from anyone present at the incident – but that they had been contacted by a number of people who had seen the clip.
Under legislation relating to the reporting of complaints to GSOC, such complaints are not considered admissible.
In response to a request by TheJournal.ie, GSOC responded by saying:
We have not received any such complaints, i.e. any complaints that we would be able to admit and investigate, re the events of last weekend, at this point. It would be normal that it would take a few days for complaints to be made, so this is not to say that we will not receive complaints related to these events.
Such complaints about gardaí behaviour are legislated for under the section 83 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005, which reads:
…a complaint concerning any conduct of a member of the Garda Síochána that is alleged to constitute misbehaviour may be made to the Ombudsman Commission by a member of the public who is directly affected by, or who witnesses, the conduct…
Prior to the weekend GSOC has received 16 admissible complaints in relation to the policing of water protests.
Leo Varadkar
Speaking on the RTE’s Prime Time programme last night, Minister for Health Leo Varadkar, withheld judgement about the actions of the gardaí during the incident saying, “we haven’t seen the entire footage” and that “she was standing in the way of a moving car”.
The Minister went on to say that anyone with a complaint to make could do so to GSOC and that it seemed that water charge protesters were engaged in efforts to damage relations between communities and gardaí.
Increased efforts
In the wake of recent incidents that have seen the Taoiseach’s car blocked and Tainiste Joan Burton hit with a water balloon – gardaí are set to ramp up security efforts.
Reports this morning state that the home security of members of the Government will be checked and garda patrols in areas near their residences will be stepped up.
- additional reporting from Hugh O’Connell and Daragh Brophy
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