Thomas Pringle TD has called for an independent inquiry into whether the Ombudsman’s office had been bugged following yesterday’s committee hearing where GSOC chair expressed surveillance concerns.
“Yesterday’s meeting with GSOC chair Simon O’Brien, which I attended, where he laid out his concerns on possible surveillance has solidified the fact that a full independent inquiry is the only way forward in this matter,” the Donegal TD said tonight.
“Up until the meeting held by the Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions we had the Taoiseach and Minister Shatter insisting that there is nothing to report or investigate. We now know, as had been strongly suspected, that this is far from the case.
“Instead of recognising the critical importance of this matter we have had the powers that be go on the attack and question the integrity of the Ombudsman’s Commission, rather than taking the reports seriously and dealing with them. We have even been treated to our Taoiseach wrongly quoting a supposed obligation on GSOC to report this issue to the Minister, and thereby trying to cast a doubt in the public mind about the issue.
“In a functioning democracy the reaction of the leader of the state to such serious reports should be to initiate an investigation without delay by an independent body to get to the bottom of the issue and find out where culpability lies, but instead he has gone on the attack. There is a major crisis here and a very serious challenge to our democracy that cannot be ignored.
“The least we should be able to expect is that our government would be concerned about this. It should be blatantly obvious to everyone that there is an urgent need to have this incident investigated fully and independently to restore confidence in the administration of justice. We have to be assured that the Ombudsman’s Commission can carry on its work providing oversight and accountability for the Gardaí.
“I call on the Minister and the government to initiate a comprehensive independent investigation into whether the Ombudsman’s office had been bugged. Only an external investigation can achieve that and restore all our trust,” stated Pringle.