Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan.
ROLLING NEWS.IE
By Evan Short
Under pressure Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan is facing new calls to step aside after it was revealed that system errors saw almost one million extra DUI tests officially recorded than were actually carried out.
According to official Garda records, the force carried out 1,996,365 breath tests on drivers between October 2011 and December 2016.
However, that figure was revealed to be 1,058,157 when the data was checked by the Medical Bureau of Road Safety.
The discrepancy has been blamed on the transfer of information from Garda notebooks to the “PUSLE” system that records data in stations.
Gardaí say a new system has now been introduced to prevent the same thing happening again.
Neverthless, the error has put more pressure on Commissioner O’Sullivan who was already facing calls to step aside following the Garda McCabe whistleblower scandal - where it has been alleged she help spread rumors about a serving guard who spoke out about wrongdoing; a claim she denies.
O’Sullivan says she will not step aside, even if TDs vote on a motion of no confidence in her stewardship of the force.
Sinn Féin Justice Spokesperson, Jonathan O’Brien, said he believed O’Sullivan had no alternative.
“It is clear public confidence in An Garda Síochána would be further eroded by Nóirín O’Sullivan remaining as Garda Commissioner. Her position has become untenable. The government should now use the power provided to it, under the 2005 Garda Síochána Act, to remove her from office,” said O’Brien.
“The people of this state are entitled to a standard of policing in which accountability is central to the ethos of the service. This must be achieved on the basis of fairness, impartially and objectivity. This standard does not exist presently. The necessary public confidence in Garda management does not exist at this time.”
Fianna Fáil had also called for the commissioner to step aside, but appeared to row back on that demand this week.
Instead, the party’s justice spokesman, Jim O’Callaghan, called for the justice minister to be called to answer questions in the Dáil.
“It is clear that many crucial questions remain unanswered. We are not reassured by what was said and in particular we are concerned at the description of the failure to notify the Policing Authority as ‘an administrative error,” he said.
“However, a number of elements of today’s press conference make it clear that the tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald) also has questions to answer on this.
“To date, the tánaiste’s response has consisted mainly of concerned noises and much hand wringing. It took five days from the announcement of this crisis until the tánaiste met with the Commissioner.
“That isn’t good enough. We need to know exactly what the tánaiste knew and when she knew it and all the issues that flow from that need to be fully examined.”
