asked the Minister for Justice the number of complaints received during 1969 about alleged excessive use of force by some gardaí.
32.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Complaints against Gardaí.
31.
asked the Minister for Justice if it is a fact that the Commissioner of the Garda refused to furnish the press with information requested regarding the number of complaints received about alleged excessive use of force by some gardaí.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 32 together.
The information that was sought related to complaints about Garda actions in street demonstrations and crowd control. It is not a fact that the commissioner refused the information. The commissioner had not the information to give and he explained this to the newspaper concerned, pointing out that the information could be got only by special research which would mean diverting men from urgent police work.
For the same reason, I am not in a position to supply the information sought in the Deputy's second question.
I should, however, like to make it perfectly clear that the fact that statistics are not available by no means implies, as the newspaper concerned has sought to suggest, that in the absence of statistics the Garda authorities have no general picture of the situation. The general picture is well known not only to the Garda authorities but to the general public, and it is that there is a very small minority in this country, mostly in Dublin, whose policy it is to engage in illegal obstruction of the streets and in other forms of illegal interference with the rights of others, partly because they have no respect for the rights of others and partly with the deliberate object of trying to provoke a clash with the Garda Síochána, so that the moment the gardaí intervene to protect the ordinary members of the public, they can raise a chorus of "police brutality" which is the stock cry of layabouts and hooligans in this and other countries. I have no intention whatsoever of asking the Garda Síochána to waste their time and taxpayers' money compiling meaningless statistics relating to or inflated by incidents of this nature.
Arising out of the Minister's reply——
Was this what happened at Ballyfermot on Sunday?
The people of Ballyfermot were well able to deal with Deputy Dr. Cruise-O'Brien's hooligans themselves.
They dealt with the Fianna Fáil men.
They did not need the guards.
May I ask whether the reference to Deputy Dr. Cruise-O'Brien's hooligans is in order? Is it in order for the Minister to refer to hooligans of mine?
The Deputy transported them, assisted by Deputy Dr. Thornley.
That is a political charge. Political charges have been made in this House on various occasions.
Would it be in order for me to call the Minister a hooligan?
The Deputy was not called a hooligan. The Deputy should not try referring to the Minister in that manner.
Arising out of the Minister's speech in the guise of a reply, one very specific complaint about the excessive use of force, which it would not take the Minister long to investigate, was made on television by Miss Bernadette Devlin who claimed she herself was the victim of such violence. Has the Minister had that complaint investigated and, if so, with what result?
That is a separate question. The fact is that it was investigated. There is no truth whatever in the allegations made on that occasion.
Since Miss Devlin's statement was about something she states happened to herself— a matter within her own knowledge—is the Minister saying Miss Devlin was lying on that occasion?
I repeat what I said— there was no truth whatever in her allegations. On Telefís Éireann she certainly slandered an innocent garda in this connection. She and others were breaking the law. They were not entitled to picket a hotel because they did not like the people in that hotel. The only people entitled to picket in this country are the trade unions during a trade dispute.