More than 220 people have died in or following Garda custody or contact over the last 15 years, according to new figures from Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.
Between 2007 and 2021, a total of 228 fatal incidents were referred to Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC), with the highest number of deaths on record being referred in 2021 at 34.
GSOC was established as the independent statutory body under the Garda Siochana Act 2005. Under section 102 of the Act, all deaths and serious injury in Garda custody or following Garda contact must be referred to the commission for investigation.
Of those who died last year, nine were following Garda contact, and six deaths occurred in Garda custody, including people who passed away subsequently in hospital.
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Five people died following release from Garda custody, a further five people died in a road traffic collision while in pursuit, with two others dying in other road traffic collisions.
One person died while being restrained or arrested, and six people died in other unspecified circumstances.
The lowest number of fatalities was reported in 2017 when there were seven incidents referred to the Ombudsman.
The figures were released to People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, in response to a parliamentary question.
In her response, Ms McEntee said gardaí must determine if the threshold has been reached to refer an incident to GSOC.
“The determination is an operational matter for the Commissioner and neither I, as Minister, nor GSOC has any role in this independent decision-making process,” she said.
“It should be noted that referrals to GSOC under section 102 may involve more than one fatality in an incident, for instance, in a road traffic collision that results in the deaths of two or more persons.”
Dr Vicky Conway, associate professor in the school of Law and Government in DCU, and former member of the Policing Authority, said the figure is “problematic”, as some of the instances could relate to more than one person, meaning there is no “accurate figure for the number of people who died in or following Garda custody”.
“Even working off that figure, an average of 15 people per year is very, very worrying. When somebody is taken into custody or has an interaction with the guards, the State has obligations to protect that individual no matter what their circumstances are,” she said.
“Some of this maybe unavoidable — people have overdoses or whatever it is. But we need a lot more detail why these deaths are occurring and to what extent they are preventable.”
Dr Conway added that she is aware of at least one case in which a man died by suicide four hours after release from Garda custody, and it was not referred to GSOC, meaning the true number of deaths could be higher.
“The guards are under a legal obligation.. and you would hope that it would be generally complied with. But we don’t have a definition or timeframe on following [Garda custody or contact], so we don’t know exactly how that is applied and we do know of cases that were not referred that I think clearly should have been,” she said.
