Minister for Health Simon Harris has said that the Government cannot express confidence in the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) and nothing is off the table regarding its future.
In the aftermath of the collapse of the Sean FitzPatrick trial, Mr Harris said the idea of a new anti-corruption agency could be looked at again by the Dáil.
Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, he said it was an issue of competence and the ODCE had not dealt with cases of this magnitude before.
"It's an office that was largely taking cases to the District Court," he said.
Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall called for the establishment of a new wide-ranging law enforcement agency to tackle white collar crime.
She said there has never been enough political will to tackle this form of crime.
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Meanwhile, Labour Leader Brendan Howlin has called for a body that is "fit for purpose to investigate white collar crime in this country".
Mr Howlin said: "We need an organisation like the SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, in [the] US that is genuinely feared by those who would trespass against company law."
He added there was a need for an independent person go in and look at how this "absolute litany of disaster happened".
But he said any investigation also needed to look at the role of the Director of Public Prosecution. Mr Howlin asked "was the DPP aware that witness statements were being crafted by a committee?"
He also said that it was impossible to understand why vacant garda positions in the ODCE could not be immediately filled.
"Out of 13,000 gardaí in the country, the notion that you couldn't find three to give to the ODCE is not credible," he said.
ODCE 'severely hampered' in efforts to probe white collar crime
The State's corporate enforcement watchdog is "severely hampered" in carrying out white collar investigations as a result of having less than its required statutory complement of Gardai, documents released to RTÉ's This Week under Freedom of Information reveal.
Letters from the ODCE to Garda Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan and the head of the Garda Economic Crime Bureau show that the most senior garda position within the ODCE's Garda Unit, a Detective Inspector role, has been vacant for eight months.
The office is also operating with three, rather than the required four detective gardaí.
The detective inspector vacancy has left the ODCE without a person to "lead, direct and supervise the specialist work of the ODCE's Garda Unit", according to the letters.
In another letter to the head of the Garda ECB last September, ODCE Director Ian Drennan described the vacancy as "a very serious development", at a time when the ODCE was facing into "a lengthy and complex trial," which he said would absorb a significant proportion of Garda resources, which was running in parallel with a number of other serious investigations.
The letter was also sent to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.
According to the FOI documents, the vacancy arose when a detective inspector serving with the ODCE gave three working days notice of retirement last September, causing the director to raise serious concerns about the impact of the retirement on his office.
In a letter to Detective Superintendent Patrick Lordan, head of the Garda ECB, Mr Drennan called for the vacancy to be filled urgently:
"As you are aware, we are to face into a lengthy and complex trial which will absorb a significant proportion of our Garda resources. In parallel, we have a significant number of other criminal investigations ongoing at this time. As such, a vacancy at Detective Inspector level, particularly arising at such short notice, is a very serious development from the ODCE's perspective…it is imperative that this post be filled without delay".
The letter was also cc-ed to the Secretary General of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.
Mr Drennan was told by Det Supt Lordan by reply in October 2016 that his request to immediately replace the detective inspector would be forwarded to the office of the Garda Commissioner.
In November 2016, Det Supt Lordan again wrote to the ODCE to inform the director that the vacancy would be advertised in 2017 as part of a wider promotion process within An Garda Síochána.
He said: "I can confirm that this vacancy will be included in a competition to fill vacancies arising from Detective Inspectors, Crime Ordinary/Special and Special Crime Operations, valid to 31st December 2017 and this competition will be advertised during Quarter 1, 2017".
The timeline outlined by Det Supt Lordan raised "serious concern" within the ODCE.
In a reply in November 2016, Mr Drennan again wrote to Det Supt Lordan reiterating his point about his office's involvement in a complex trial and warning of "significant reputational risks for both the ODCE and An Garda Siochána" due to the ODCE's Garda Unit being under-strength.
He also pointed out that the ODCE's required complement of detective gardai was inadequate at a time of Anglo Irish Bank-related court actions.
Mr Drennan asked that the timeline for the replacement "which ... could conceivably be next summer or even beyond" be "reconsidered as a matter of urgency".
ODCE Director sent two letters to Garda Commissioner
Last January Mr Drennan also wrote directly to Commissioner O'Sullivan on two separate occasions.
Firstly, on 9 January, he told the commissioner that, following a meeting with Det Sup Lordan, he had been advised that the Garda ECB was not a position to provide him with a suitable replacement on secondment and that he should escalate the matter to commissioner-level.
The director drew the commissioner's attention to the Government directive on Garda staffing levels in his office.
"With the recent retirement of the Detective Inspector that had previously been assigned to the Office, the Garda complement currently assigned to the ODCE … has fallen to a level which requires to be addressed urgently".
A table of figures in the letter showed 4.5 gardaí (whole time equivalents) working in the office at that time, 2.5 whole time equivalents below the statutory requirement of seven.
Mr Drennan told the commissioner "the ODCE currently has a number of serious, and large scale, white collar investigations open but, in the absence of a full complement of garda resources, is severely hampered in its ability to progress these investigations."
No reply to the 9 January letter is recorded in the ODCE files released in the FOI.
On 25 January the ODCE Director wrote again to Commissioner O'Sullivan to inform her of a further imminent garda retirements in the office.
Mr Drennan also referred to the concerns he raised in the 9 January letter in which he set out "the extent to which the ODCE's complement of garda staff has fallen below the level as provided for by Government and the associated implications for the ODCE's capacity to discharge its mandate".
The letter to Commissioner O'Sullivan continued: "With effect from 17 February, the ODCE will be operating with only half its approved complement of gardaí and, moreover, will be operating without a Detective Inspector".
He also attached a copy of a 1999 Government directive on ODCE Garda staffing numbers to emphasise his point.
The detective inspector role in the ODCE Garda Unit remains vacant. A detective garda vacancy also remains unfilled.
This Week contacted the Garda Press Office for a comment about the garda vacancies at the ODCE. The questions were acknowledged but no statement or reply was given.
