An Garda Síochána

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 March 2022

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Ceisteanna (780)

Paul Murphy

Ceist:

780. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the number of deaths by year in or following Garda custody or contact since the creation of GSOC including but not limited to shootings, pursuits, deaths in custody and deaths following any Garda interaction in tabular form. [14991/22]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Justice

I have requested the information sought by the Deputy from An Garda Síochána. however it was not received in time. I will write to the Deputy with the information when it is available.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51

I refer to Parliamentary Question No. 780 of 22 March 2022 where you asked:

‘the number of deaths by year in or following Garda custody or contact since the creation of GSOC including but not limited to shootings, pursuits, deaths in custody and deaths following any Garda interaction in tabular form.’

As you will recall, I sought the information you requested and undertook to contact you again once the information was to hand.

As you 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 most recent 2021 annual report, a breakdown of the circumstances of those deaths had not, as a matter of course, been disaggregated in these annual reports so it is not possible for GSOC to draw such figures from their reports.

As a result, 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).

It should be noted that referrals to GSCO 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. The table below provides the number of referrals under section 102 that involved one or more fatalities.

Year	Fatal incidents involving referral under Section 102
2007	12
2008	13
2009	16
2010	10
2011	23
2012	13
2013	8
2014	14
2015	15
2016	12
2017	7
2018	15
2019	16
2020	20
2021	34
TOTAL	228

As I have noted above, GSOC’s recently published 2021 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 2021	No of s102 referrals
Deaths following Garda Contact	9
Deaths in Garda Custody*	6
Deaths following release from Garda Custody	5
Deaths, Road Traffic Collision (Pursuit)	5
Deaths, Road Traffic Collision (Other)	2
Deaths during restraint/arrest	1
Deaths – Other	6
Totals	34

*Deaths in Garda Custody includes persons who subsequently passed away in hospital.

Question No. 781 answered with Question No. 776.