FIVE GARDAÍ under investigation for making sexually threatening comments about two women arrested during protests at the Mayo gas project have been confined to office duties in Castlebar station while the inquiry is ongoing.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter also told the Dáil policing of the Corrib gas project in north Mayo had cost €14.25 million in additional overtime and allowances.

The Minister said he had received a report from the Garda Commissioner about the incident where garda comments were recorded on audio tape and a copy had been sent to the Garda Ombudsman Commission, which is carrying out a separate investigation. Mr Shatter said four of the gardaí would be transferred from their stations to Castlebar and “confined to indoor duties in the interests of the service”. The fifth garda, already based at Castlebar, will remain there and will also be “confined to indoor duties”.

The Minister said the commissioner had acted swiftly. “Remarks of the kind reported are completely unacceptable when made by any group of people whatever, whether made publicly or privately and in particular are not acceptable when made by members of the Garda Síochána.”

But responding during justice questions to Richard Boyd Barrett (PBP, Dún Laoghaire), Mr Shatter said it was a matter of regret “that some people have used this most regrettable and unfortunate incident to bolster a campaign of vilification against the Garda, which they have engaged in since the start of the Corrib protests. The strategy appears to be simple: to harass gardaí as much as possible so as to impair its capacity to do its job in the hope this will frustrate the building of the pipeline.

“While not minimising in any way the nature of the incident involved nor in any way condoning it, it is in the public interest that I state clearly my belief that the vast majority of gardaí have behaved in an exemplary manner in policing the protests in Corrib and they will continue to do so.”

But Joan Collins (PBP, Dublin South-Central) said that 111 cases complaining about Garda behaviour “have been made to the police in recent years and nothing has come from that”.

Mr Boyd Barrett had asked about a security company establishing checkpoints and roadblocks on a public road and called for an international inquiry into the “behaviour of gardaí and private security companies employed by Shell in the area and how they are treating peaceful protesters”. Mr Shatter said he had no information about private security companies vetting traffic or that gardaí were aware of any checkpoints operated by non-Garda personnel.