The Minister for Justice has said she has no evidence of a lack of co-operation between the Garda and the Garda Síochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) in connection with the arrest of Clare Daly on suspicion of drink driving in early 2013.
The TD was breathalysed on January 28th and detained after which details of the arrest were leaked to the media. Subsequent tests showed that Ms Daly had registered below the legal drink driving limit.
Ms Daly lodged a formal complaint with GSOC but her fellow independent TD Mick Wallace told the Dáil this week that her solicitor had received a letter from GSOC claiming that gardaí had failed to co-operate in its investigation and it was now examining its powers of compellability in an effort to progress the investigation.
“I need to get details of that GSOC letter, precisely when it was written,” Frances Fitzgerald said.
She said it was her understanding that there is “ongoing co-operation between the gardaí and GSOC.”
Ms Fitzgerald said both “the Garda Commissioner and the head of GSOC have told me there is ongoing co-operation on all cases and that information is being exchanged and if there is any problem in relation to any particular case that is immediately escalated up to the Garda Commissioner and indeed to myself.
She said that “right now” she did not have “any escalation in relation to any particular case on my desk so I can’t comment on an individual case but I can say that GSOC has told me consistently in recent months that they are happy with the level of co-operation they’re getting.”
Ms Fitzgerald also denied there were any politically motivated delays into the publication of the Fennelly Commission report on events leading to the departure of Martin Callinan as Garda commissioner last year.
“We don’t know when we are going to get the Fennelly report. That is entirely up to Justice Fennelly and obviously he will give the report when it is finalised and ready to be given to Government,” she said.
She added that the “reason for the delay, if there was a delay, indeed, was because they were waiting for the outcome of the Bailey case and that has been dealt with now but we don’t have a timeframe for it but it really is a decision for the commission.”
