Update 10.20am: Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan has said officers may have deliberately exaggerated drink-driving statistics.
In a week where the Government said it was considering a “Patten-style commission” to overhaul its scandal-ridden garda, the top officer apologised for not keeping the Policing Authority fully appraised of the controversy.
“It was a complete oversight and the Deputy Commissioner has apologised to the Policing Authority and apologised publicly. It was an oversight,” she said.
“The material is being provided.”
Last week an audit revealed almost one million fewer drink-driving breath tests were carried out from 2012 to 2016 than gardai had claimed.
The gardaí also admitted 146,000 people were taken to court and 14,700 people were wrongly convicted of motoring offences because of issues with the fixed penalty system.
Amid this and a welter of scandals over how whistleblowers were treated and inadequate financial practices in the Garda College in Templemore, Ms O’Sullivan is clinging on to her role as commissioner.
Fianna Fáil has said it cannot express confidence in her while Sinn Féin have demanded her resignation.
Ms O’Sullivan apologised at the Oireachtas Justice Committee over the breath test data and erroneous prosecutions and she warned that the internal audit led by Assistant Commissioner Michael O’Sullivan could find that it was “deliberate”.
“What we do know is that the numbers do not match,” she said.
“Was it entered erroneously? Was it entered in error? What was it?
“It’s either deceptive insofar that somebody picked a number and just entered a number or it was a complete error and miscount of the number.”
She added: “It may well be the case that the Assistant Commissioner O’Sullivan will discover members, individual members, deliberately put figures into the system that were not correct figures.”
Ms O’Sullivan also said she wanted to apologise for all the failures that have happened in the force over the last 10 years, not just the breath testing, and she insisted that she has never shirked responsibility.
Update 9.25am:The Garda Commissioner has begun her appearance before the Oireachtas Justice Committee.
Noirín O’Sullivan has been called in by politicians amid the latest breath test scandal.
In her opening statement – leaked to the press yesterday – she said she fears the false figures in Garda traffic may extend further into the force.
Commissioner O’Sullivan acknowledged that incorrect figures may have been deliberately entered by members of the gardaí.
“It may well be the case that… [we] will discover that individual members deliberately put numbers into the system that were not correct.”
She also told Clare Daly TD that she was not trying avoid responsibility for the growing scandal.
“I have never said I am not taking responsibility for this, I am taking responsibility for this.”
Earlier: Noirín O’Sullivan will be asked to explain later why she believes the false figures in Garda traffic may extend into further areas of policing.
The Garda Commissioner is due before the Justice Committee in the Dáil this morning.
Commissioner O’Sullivan has been called before the Oireachtas committee after revelations of a fake one million breath tests and 14,700 cases of wrong court convictions for speeding.
Her opening statement for this morning’s hearing was leaked yesterday and in it she said she has a real fear that the falsification of figures goes beyond traffic data.
That will be one element she will face a grilling on this morning, as well as why Gardaí have been beset by scandals under her leadership.
Fianna Fáil will be watching her performance closely as the party is at the moment unable to express confidence in her.
Commissioner O’Sullivan will also be asked about the financial scandal at the training college and will have to address claims that she’s been holed up with former commissioner Martin Callinan preparing for the disclosures tribunal.
