Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan has no difficulty with the Minister for Justice's decision to ask the Ombudsman for Children to investigate the recent removal of two Roma children from their families.
"I have no issue at all with oversight and if the Minister chooses to get any particular oversight body to look at any area of activity that we in An Garda Síochána are involved in, then I have no difficulty and neither have any of my officers," Mr Callinan said in Cork today.
Last Friday, Mr Shatter met Ombudsman for Children Emily Logan and granted special powers to allow her office investigate the garda involvement in the removal of the children from their families last week.
A girl (7) in Dublin and a boy (2) in Athlone were removed from their families and placed in HSE care by gardaí amid suggestions they were not actually related to their families.
DNA tests later confirmed both were the children of the parents in question and the episode raised concerns that gardaí and the HSE acted on the basis of racial profiling. The incident resulted in Minister for Justice Alan Shatter requesting reports from both bodies as well as Ms Logan.
Asked today about the matter, Mr Callinan replied that neither he nor his officers have any issue with Ms Logan examining their involvement in either case. “We are here and we are fully accountable and that’s what we intend to be in this particular instance as well,” he said.
Mr Callinan refused to be drawn on what exactly gardaí did in either case, stressing that it would not be prudent to comment in detail on either case given that both are now the subject of an inquiry by Ms Logan.
“As commissioner, I have been asked by the Minister for Justice and Equality to provide a report on the circumstances surrounding those two instances and that’s what I will be doing in the coming days,” he said.
“But of course our policy is quite clear here terms of the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and it has to be the case and it will continue to be the case that the welfare of the child or vulnerable adult will be up front and central to everything we do.
“They are the primary consideration and beyond that it wouldn’t be safe to go at this stage because whatever I say or do might interfere or have a bearing on the inquiry that the ombudsman is conducting and I wouldn’t wish for that to happen.”
Asked about the robust criticism that has come from some quarters over garda involvement in both cases, Mr Callinan replied that everyone was entitled their opinion on the matter but he would prefer to await the outcome of the various reports before responding in detail.
“People are entitled to express an opinion in all of these matters - these are very difficult, very very complex cases and my members are confronted with problems at all hours of the day and night and are expected to respond.
“We would hope always that they (member of An Garda Síochána) would have made the right decisions in all of these cases and as I’ve already said, the welfare of the child is up front and central to everything we do, he said.
Mr Callinan was speaking in Cork where he officially launched Crime Prevention Day,noting the success of the local Joint Policing Committees in both the city and county before paying tribute to local gardai for achieving a 15 per cent drop in burglary rates in the past year
