The Minister for Justice has ordered an inquiry into an allegation that five members of the Garda and a civilian fleet manager in its transport section accepted free foreign trips.
Mr O'Donoghue told the Dail that while a Garda investigation was already under way, he felt that the matter warranted an external examination. "I have discussed the matter with the secretary-general of my Department. He, in his capacity as accounting officer for the Garda vote, has asked the internal audit unit of the Department to examine the matter, and they commenced this work yesterday.
"He is also in discussion with the Comptroller and Auditor General about arranging an independent examination of the matter from a financial control point of view."
Mr O'Donoghue said the Department was in touch with the Public Offices Commission, whose secretary had written formally to the secretary-general and the Garda Commissioner with a view to ascertaining whether there might be aspects of the matter which the commission should examine.
The Minister, who stressed that he was not in a position to comment on the veracity of the allegations, was replying to the Fine Gael spokesman on justice, Mr Alan Shatter, who referred to an article in the Sunday Business Post which made the allegations.