I thank the Chairman and reiterate the apologies of the acting Garda Commissioner, who is out of the country and unable to attend today. Certainly I will communicate back to him the concerns of the committee in this regard. The committee has asked that we cover a number of items today and the breadth of topics requires a larger attendance than normal. Given the time constraints for this opening statement, I will provide an overview of each matter and my team with me are more than happy to take further questions on the detail in each of the areas.
As previously stated, An Garda Síochána takes the investigation of each and every suspicious death very seriously. All members of An Garda Síochána understand that any death, regardless of whether it is ultimately deemed to be from natural causes, accidental or premeditated, brings significant pain for the deceased’s loved ones and, as such, it is vital they are investigated fully and professionally so families can be provided with all of the answers to their concerns.
It is also important that each death is recorded accurately on our computer system, PULSE, to ensure An Garda Síochána, our stakeholders and society at large has the most up-to-date information available on natural, accidental and suspicious deaths recorded throughout the country at any particular moment in time.
As previously outlined to the committee in December 2017, a review team was established under an assistant commissioner and includes experienced detectives and civilian members of the Garda analysis service to further examine all homicide incidents between 2003 and 2017. Under this review, priority has been given to the 41 cases from 2013 to 2015 that were the subject of discussion between An Garda Síochána, the CSO and the Policing Authority. To progress this review, a senior investigating officer has been appointed and an incident room has been established. The review team’s terms of references have been previously outlined to the committee and they effectively have two bodies of work. These are to review the classification of each homicide incident in line with the crime counting rules and PULSE data quality, and the review of the standard of investigations carried out, particularly to ensure compliance with Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights and the Garda Síochána Act 2005.
Each of the 41 cases is being subjected to a stringent and robust thematic review looking at a range of issues, including initial response, post mortem, main lines of inquiry, exhibits, charge process and family liaison. To date, 12 of the 41 cases have been reviewed and two of the 41 cases are before the courts with trial dates set. Certain commonalities have been identified in the cases reviewed to date, such as the revisiting and upgrading of investigative actions and crime classification on PULSE, which had been overlooked. The review team has also consulted with a number of external bodies to ensure independent data quality. These include the Office of the State Pathologist, the Courts Service and coroners' inquests. As a result of findings to date, the review team has made a number of recommendations for changes to PULSE.
Due to the volume of work involved in the in-depth review of the 41 cases, unfortunately it will not be possible to have the work completed by the end of April 2018 as previously outlined. The review team is committed to completing its work as quickly as possible, while very conscious of the need for each individual incident to be thoroughly and comprehensively reviewed. We will keep all stakeholders advised on progress on these issues.
The Garda ICT department has successfully delivered a number of major projects, such as the TETRA radio communications network, e-vetting, and an automated number plate recognition system to assist the delivery of policing and security services. This would not have been possible without a comprehensive approach to governance and project management. In relation to ICT procurement, our focus has always been on procuring IT services that support policing and national security activity in a cost-effective manner. In line with other public sector bodies, the annual Garda ICT budget is approved by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer. In addition, it is subject to review by the ICT governance board, which is chaired by myself as chief administrative officer, and includes representatives from the Departments of Justice and Equality and Public Expenditure and Reform. The ICT governance board meets on a quarterly basis.
When talking about ICT investment in An Garda Síochána, it is important to put this in context. Due to the economic downturn and the subsequent decision of successive Governments to reduce funding to the Garda organisation and put in place an embargo on civilian recruitment, the ICT budget was reduced significantly. Capital expenditure reduced by 50% and operational expenditure reduced by 43%. In addition, the number of people employed in ICT is significantly lower than in similarly sized public sector organisations across the public service at large. As a result, in order to maintain critical policing and national security ICT systems on a 24-7, 365 days a year basis, it was vital that the ICT department had access to external skilled resources. By their nature, given the range of ICT services to be provided and supported, contracts with suppliers can be very complex. The skilled resource contract with a company we have referenced previously, namely, Accenture, commenced in 2009. Initially, it ran for two years with the option to extend for a further two years, which it was. The contract was further extended since 2013 to ensure the continued operation of ICT services and because the complex nature of the contract meant retendering would be difficult due to the lack of a permanent resource to design and run a procurement competition. However, over the duration of the contract, the average cost per resource has decreased by 8%.
The report by the Garda internal audit service raised a number of issues, which have been addressed or are in the process of being addressed. As of 1 September 2017, all Accenture staff working under the skilled resource contract are subject to the Garda electronic time recording system. In December 2017, An Garda Síochána received approval from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to use the Office of Government Procurement to tender for a new skilled resource contract through open competition. This contract has been broken into four tenders for different services, namely, service desk provision, IT operations, security and support for the strategic transformation office. These tenders are at different stages of the procurement process. Over the past 12 months, the number of in-house skilled resources in ICT has increased, and it will increase further in the coming years. Increased numbers and skills, combined with new structures in the ICT department, will reduce the level of dependency on external contractors. On the matter of agreed rates, all rates are contained in the master services agreement and annual project documents. There are no verbally agreed rates. In addition, the internal audit service raised the issue of pre-payments. The decision to apply prepayments is in line with the overall Garda budgeting process and has resulted in a 5.5% discount.
On the matter of the use of email service in the organisation, as was raised by the Policing Authority, An Garda Síochána provided a report to it. Following the issue being raised at this committee in early December 2017, this report was provided to the committee later that month.
It is important to state that this report related to organisational use of email and not email use by any individual within An Garda Síochána.
An Garda Síochána takes the issue of ICT security very seriously and operates a robust and secure e-mail service. Every year, there are approximately 48 million emails sent and received securely on our internal systems. It was the case, however, that in order to use certain mobile devices provided to personnel, there was a requirement to sign up to an account from a commercial provider to gain security updates for the phone. It is a standard process operated by the telecommunications industry. There was not, though, any obligation to use the email account. Restrictions on the sending of large files over the Garda email system also led to some people, for operational reasons, occasionally using commercial email services.
It is clear that our usage policies relating to email had not kept pace with technological developments. We have taken a number of steps to address this issue. Users cannot auto-forward emails from Garda email accounts to commercial email accounts. Garda desktop users cannot access external email systems. An updated policy on Internet and email usage is being finalised. The introduction of a new enterprise content management system will enable the remote access of files from mobile devices via secure access protocols, reducing the requirement to send files via email. Our mobility project, which is being piloted in Limerick, will securely provide mobile users with access to a range of Garda systems and information.
On the committee's report on Garda oversight and accountability aspects that are under our control, we have implemented a number of measures. In the context of reducing service level complaints to GSOC, pilots have been run in the Carlow-Kilkenny division to reduce the level of such complaints and in the Pearse Street division to examine ways to resolve such complaints without formal recourse to a GSOC process. Both pilots have proven successful. In this regard, Ms Justice Ring has cited the Carlow-Kilkenny pilot as an example of how An Garda Síochána and GSOC can work together to improve public confidence in policing. It is intended to extend the Carlow-Kilkenny pilot to all divisions in the south-east region by the end of quarter 2 of 2018 and the Pearse Street pilot to other divisions by quarter 3.
An Garda Síochána has improved the process for Garda personnel speaking up about issues in the organisation. We continue to encourage and support anyone who wishes to speak up in the future. To strengthen our approach in this area, we are currently reviewing our protected disclosures policy in conjunction with our colleagues from the PSNI, and additional protected disclosure managers were appointed by the Commissioner in December 2017. There are now four protected disclosure managers in the organisation, with a mix of Garda and civilian personnel, male and female, to include staff outside HR to ensure any staff seeking to bring a protected disclosure have a number of managers available to them. In addition, we are working with Transparency Ireland in respect of training and assistance to protected disclosure managers and the policy holder. Transparency Ireland is also assisting with the review of An Garda Síochána's existing practices. In addition, members of the Garda senior leadership team have completed an integrity-at-work training course on whistleblowing and the Protected Disclosure Act 2014, facilitated by Transparency Ireland.
I thank the Chairman. Given the breadth of issues to be considered, colleagues will probably take the lead in individual areas if that is acceptable to the committee.
