Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 March 2024
956. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Justice to provide details of categories (details supplied) in relation to the number of persons who have died in Garda custody, including but not limited to deaths in Garda stations, immigration detention centres and other spaces managed by An Garda Síochána between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2022, in tabular form. [12934/24]
View answer957. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Justice to provide details of categories (details supplied) of the number of persons who have died following contact with by An Garda Síochána between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2022, in tabular form. [12935/24]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 956 and 957 together.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) is the independent statutory body established under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 (as amended) to investigate complaints against members of An Garda Síochána. As Minister, I have no role in the investigative functions of GSOC.
Under subsection 102(1) of the Act, the Garda Commissioner shall refer to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission any matter that appears to the Garda Commissioner to indicate that the conduct of a member of An Garda Síochána may have resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, a person. Under subsection 102(2) of the Act, the Ombudsman Commission shall ensure that any matter referred to the Commission under subsection (1) is investigated.
It should be noted that An Garda Síochána must determine if the threshold has been reached to refer an incident to GSOC under Section 102. This determination is an operational matter for the Commissioner and neither I, as Minister, nor GSOC has any role in this independent decision making process.
I am informed that it has been the practice of GSOC in its annual reporting to provide overviews of the circumstances that led to any Section 102 referrals in a given reporting year, including the proportion of referrals that arose from deaths. However, until their 2021 Annual Report, a breakdown of the circumstances of those deaths had not, as a matter of course, been disaggregated in these annual reports.
The table below shows the figures for incidents that were referred to GSOC which resulted in death either in or after Garda custody (Section 102 referrals), and has been compiled using the published figures in GSOC's annual reports to date.
It should be noted that referrals to GSOC under section 102 may involve more than one fatality in an incident, for instance, in a road traffic collision that results in the death of two or more persons.
|
Year |
Fatal incidents involving referral under Section 102 |
|
2010 |
10 |
|
2011 |
23 |
|
2012 |
13 |
|
2013 |
8 |
|
2014 |
14 |
|
2015 |
15 |
|
2016 |
12 |
|
2017 |
7 |
|
2018 |
15 |
|
2019 |
16 |
|
2020 |
20 |
|
2021 |
34 |
|
2022 |
17 |
|
TOTAL |
204 |
As noted above, GSOC’s 2022 Annual Report provides a disaggregation of the kinds of circumstances that give rise to Section 102 referrals, including where this was the result of a death in custody. This breakdown is provided in the table below for reference.
|
Reason for s102 referral in 2022 |
No of s102 referrals |
|
Injury / Illness During Arrest / Pursuit / in Custody |
15 |
|
Injury / Illness Following Garda Contact |
2 |
|
Death in Custody |
3* |
|
Death (Other) |
2 |
|
Death Following Garda Contact |
4 |
|
Road Traffic Incidents (Non-Fatal) |
5 |
|
Death, Road Traffic Incidents (Pursuit) |
2 |
|
Death During Restraint / Arrest |
1 |
|
Death Following Release from Custody |
5 |
|
Injury Following Garda Contact - Off Duty Incident |
2 |
|
Totals |
41 |
*Deaths in Garda Custody includes persons who subsequently passed away in hospital.
