The Chair of the Garda Siochána Complaints Board, Mr Gordon Holmes, today said that the Garda Siochána Complaints Board's investigative operations have been hindered by the restricted powers given to the Board.
Mr Holmes was speaking at the publication of the board's annual report for 2003 where a drop of 16per cent in the number of complaints against gardaí was announced.
However, Mr Holmes said that there are factors that might have contributed to the drop and the figures don't necessarily mean that there was a significant drop in incidents that could have led to complaints.
In the year 2003, 1,175 complaints were made to the Garda Siochána Complaints Board in comparison to 1,405 complaints in 2002. But, Mr Holmes said, in 2002 people might have been more likely to make a complaint because of the publicity the Board received after the events in that year's Reclaim the Streets march.
Referring to the replacement of the current Board by a Garda ombudsman body under new legislation, Mr Holmes said it would have "many of the powers that the Board have sought for so long."
"There will also be a new system and a body put in place to deal with complaints. People might feel that they'll wait for that before they make a complaint," Mr Holmes said providing context to the 2003 figures.
However, he singled out Dublin as an area where the drop in complaints was more significant. In 2002, there were 750 complaints made against gardai in the Dublin Metropolitan Area. That figure had dropped to 586 in 2003.
The Garda Bill, which seeks to establish the Garda ombudsman body, is currently in the committee stage in the Seanad. Although the exact extent of its powers are not yet fully clear, it has been established that the three-strong inspectorate will be able to launch investigations on its own initiative without receiving a complaint. The body will be headed by a retired Supreme Court or a High Court judge.
According to Mr Holmes, the new body should have "its own investigative team that it can call upon to deal with matters of a serious or important nature, as the current legislation proposes." Furthermore, the team should also be able to "investigate any other case which the Minister requests should be so investigated or any complaint or incident which the Board itself should be independently investigated," said Mr Holmes.
The new body should also closely supervise the investigation of less serious matters and, in the cases where an investigation is not being efficiently carried, to take over the investigation. It should also have the ability to manage all investigations into serious matters, according to Mr Holmes.
Speaking of the role the garda superintendents currently hold in investigating the complaints, Mr Holmes said that the ethos of the gardai was one of "acceptance rather than willingness."
"The function of the gardai is not to investigate complaints against themselves; they're function is to enforce law and order, " he said. He also said that there was a worry that the gardai do not prioritise investigations into complaints. "The priority of any superintendent is to run a station, not to investigate complaints. That doesn't suit the Complaints Board but we can understand how it happens."