A garda Superintendent in Waterford has welcomed an investigation by the force into allegations that crimes in the district were falsely declared solved and said that officers there had fully kept to proper procedures.
Documents from Waterford station appear to recommend that two men be marked down as having carried out 14 burglaries, even though the men denied committing the crimes and the Gardaí did not have enough evidence to bring them to court.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Superintendent Michael McGarry said that everything at the station was 100% above board and that it was one of the best crime units in the country.
The Minister for Justice said tonight that he would be very concerned if there were attempts to falsify crime figures. However, John O'Donoghue said that the allegations related to one garda district out of 107, and it would be going too far to suggest that the documents meant all of the crime figures across the country were incorrect.
His comments followed calls from Opposition parties for the establishment of an independent Garda Ombudsman.
Fine Gael's Alan Shatter said that the claims undermined the whole basis of the Government's crime statistics. Brendan Howlin of Labour said that it was not satisfactory that other members of the Gardaí should investigate allegations against members of the same force.
The Taoiseach said earlier that the Government was already setting up an independent inspectorate to look into complaints against Gardaí.
The Garda Commissioner announced today that Chief Superintendent Sean Feeley from Naas had been appointed to carry out an investigation into the matter. Pat Byrne said that it would be speedy, comprehensive and immediately made public once completed.
Garda Headquarters said that the investigation, if necessary, would be extended to other garda divisions. However, it stressed there was no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of any member of the force.
The Minister for Defence told the Dáil earlier that the report of the investigation would be published. Michael Smith said that the Opposition should not blacken the name of Gardaí before these allegations had even been investigated.
Such an investigation is seen as likely to undermine the authenticity and reliability of the Gardaí's crime report and in particular the force's detection rate, which, at 42%, is extremely high by international standards.
