asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware that there is widespread public concern that a book has been published and printed outside this State under the title Garda Diary and bearing the insignia of the Garda Síochána and purporting to contain a summary of certain laws of this State; and if he will ensure that in future any publication under the apparent auspices of the Garda Síochána is published and printed within this State, and under proper supervision.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Garda Diary.
42.
I am not aware of any public concern and neither is the Commissioner.
The Garda Diary is circulated only within the Force and to its advertisers and it is not on sale to the public generally. It is privately produced for the Joint Garda Representative Body which is a staff organisation within the Garda Síochána. The use of the crest was approved by the Commissioner, at the request of the Garda Joint Representative Body, before the initial publication in 1960.
The Diary is a private publication, and neither I nor the Commissioner has any responsibility for it.
Will the Minister say how, what he alleges to be a private publication, bears on the face of it the official insignia of the Garda Síochána? Does the Minister consider it desirable that a publication of that nature, which bears on the face of it the insignia of the Garda Síochána and which purports to be published from a convenience address in Abbey Street in Dublin, is, in fact, published by a company which is wholly owned by a British-registered company in which the shares are held by people who are outside of this State and that the publication should be printed on newsprint and in a printing works which is outside this State and that it should, when printed, re-enter this State under British customs declaration forms being posted into the Republic of Ireland from Newtownards in County Antrim?
I do not know where this document is printed. I have no responsibility whatsoever for it and neither has the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána. This is a publication of what I might describe as the Garda trade union. The Deputy might make any suggestions he has to make direct to that body.
Would the Minister not consider that it is incumbent upon him, as a Minister of State who has responsibility for the Garda Síochána, to ensure that publications which purport to be Garda Síochána publications are printed by trade union labour on Irish paper within this State and that where publications purporting to contain a statement of Irish law for the advice of the members of the Garda Síochána are in circulation, the Minister's Department, and he in particular, have a responsibility to ensure that such publication is properly supervised and controlled?
I have no responsibility whatsoever for what is in this little booklet—for the truth or otherwise of anything that is in it. I assume that, like every other diary, the information in it is probably factually correct. Perhaps the Fine Gael Party have a particular diary like this in circulation amongst their own, too. I would not be responsible for that.
Perhaps the Minister would take a more serious view of the duties of his office.
Oh, I think this is seafóideach.
A most irresponsible Minister.