Garda testimony in court ‘won’t be part of Jobstown review’

AN internal review into the controversial Jobstown trial will not include Garda evidence in court, Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan said yesterday.

Her comments came after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called for such a review, after a series of allegations that the evidence in the trial of seven men over a water charges protest in 2014 was not accurate.

Ms O’Sullivan told the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Seán Fleming, that the review would look at the events at Jobstown but would not include the court process. She confirmed this after a testy exchange with Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald.

Ms O’Sullivan said one of her senior team was examining how the investigation was handled from a ‘lessons learned perspective’. But she said the internal review would not include anything that happened in court during the trial, including the testimony of three officers, amid claims from one of the defendants in the trial, Paul Murphy TD, that perjury had been committed.

His allegations in the Dáil on Wednesday that Garda witnesses had lied and that their evidence was contradicted by video footage has been referred to a special parliamentary watchdog.

There have been claims that it was an abuse of privilege.

Ms McDonald said: ‘I’d like to know have you spoken to the officers in question?

‘I’d like to know have you spoken to the Taoiseach on this matter and I’d like to know what form the review is taking in respect of these particular concerns?’

In response, Ms O’Sullivan said: ‘I’m very aware of the trial that took place recently before the courts. As with all of these cases, all of the parties involved are entitled to and indeed need to be afforded due process, natural justice and fair procedure. So beyond that, I don’t want to talk about the court case or the process.’

Pressing the question, Ms McDonald asked if the review would include the suggestion that there was an ‘effort perhaps by members of your force to give incorrect evidence or an incorrect account in a

Testy exchanges with Sinn Féin

court’.

The Sinn Féin deputy leader said she wanted to know if the matter of the evidence was actually being investigated.

Ms O’Sullivan said: ‘The courts system is completely independent.’ The Garda Commissioner added that an assistant commissioner had been appointed to review the circumstances leading from ‘the whole situation’.