The 1986 Act which established the Garda Complaints Board requires the annual reports of the board to be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, should explain the reason he illegally suppressed the report of the board for 1999 for a period of six months after it was received by him. The report, which contains unprecedented criticism of the failure of the Minister and the Government to radically reform the statutory provisions which govern the workings of the board, was received by the Minister in December 2000 and not published until Thursday last. Under the legislation applicable to the board, the report should have been laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and published many months ago.
In its report the board states its need for an independent investigative structure and acknowledges that because it is incapable of determining within a reasonable timeframe allegations of garda misconduct, the general public has lost confidence in it. The board emphasises the urgency for the Government to resolve the difficulties being experienced by it. For two and a half years the Government has been aware of the action required as the board submitted comprehensive proposals to amend the legislation under which it operates in December 1998. In the two and a half that have passed since nothing has been done by the Minister or the Government.
The board has an escalating backlog of complaints as it is understaffed and under-resourced. The 1986 Act under which it operates requires major reform. As of December 1999 there were 809 outstanding complaints compared to December 1998 when there were 688 and December 1997 when there were 517. The fact that complaints about alleged garda misconduct are not addressed within a reasonable timeframe is unfair to members of the Garda who are victims of false allegations and to those members of the public who make valid complaints that deserve to be taken seriously.
The report published last Thursday applies to 1999. The report for the year 2000 should also have been published by now. If it were, it is likely it would repeat the criticisms and concerns contained in the 1999 report. I call on the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to state publicly whether he has yet received the Garda Complaint Board's report for the year 2000 and when he intends to publish it. As an interim measure, I also call on him urgently to bring before the Dáil the legislative changes sought by the board and provide the board with the resources it needs to fulfil its statutory duties. If he fails to do so, it is inevitable that at some future date the State will be held to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights for failing to have in place an independent body capable of conducting independent investigations into allegations of garda misconduct within a reasonable time after a complaint has been received.
It is the view of Fine Gael that ultimately the Garda Complaints Board should be replaced by a Garda ombudsman. As the Minister has stubbornly rejected the need for a Garda Ombudsman, at the very least he should reform the 1986 Act under which the board operates. It is particularly ironic that while advocating the establishment of a Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland, as recommended in the Patten report, during his four years in office the Minister has not only rejected the call for such an ombudsman in this State, he has totally failed to introduce the reforms which the Garda Complaints Board has repeatedly stated are required for it to properly fulfil the functions for which it was originally established.
