There are currently 12 members of An Garda Síochána suspended while under investigation for alleged sexual assault or sexual misconduct.
An additional eight members are under investigation by An Garda Síochána or the Garda Ombudsman (Gsoc) for domestic violence/coercive control, according to new figures provided by the Garda Freedom of Information (FOI) Unit.
The unit said that, as of Monday this week, there were 91 members under suspension, and they include two suspended between five and six years and a further nine suspended between four and five years.
A further 20 are suspended for between three and four years with 24 suspended for two to three years. Some 21 are suspended between one and two years, with the remaining 15 suspended for up to one year.
Along with the members suspended for alleged sexual assault/sexual misconduct and domestic violence/coercive control, the FOI figures show that there are 14 members suspended who are being investigated for alleged theft, forgery, fraud or dishonesty and 12 suspended who are being investigated for driving under the influence of an intoxicant.
A further nine are suspended and are being investigated for disclosure of information/data protection/abuse of pulse; nine are being investigated for alleged Fixed Charge Notice interference; eight for corruption/criminal association; five for assault/assault causing harm while a further five are suspended where they are under investigation for drugs/drug related.
The remaining nine suspended are under investigation for ‘other’.
The FOI Unit states that “there are 31 members of An Garda Síochána suspended in excess of three years with 23 of those members currently before the Criminal Courts and eight members suspended arising from ongoing disciplinary or dismissal processes”.
The 91 suspended are made up of 59 gardaí, 11 probationer gardaí, 11 detective gardaí, seven sergeants, two reserve gardaí and “one inspector & above”.
Asked to comment on the figures, a Garda spokesman pointed out the number of gardaí currently suspended amounts to just over 0.5 per cent of the entire number of sworn members of An Garda Síochána.
He said that the number of gardaí suspended at any particular time “can fluctuate i.e. a person previously suspended can no longer be suspended, or a person suspended could decide to resign, or a person suspended could be relieved of their duties as a Garda”.
The spokesman said that there are currently 90 gardaí suspended as of June 25th – down from 115 at the end of 2022 – and that there has been no suspension of serving members for on-duty activity in 2024.
He added: “14 suspensions were lifted, or otherwise ended during 2024. It is Garda policy that every suspension is regularly reviewed, every quarter."
The spokesman pointed out that in general the suspension of Garda members from duty is a statutory process governed by the Garda Síochána (Discipline) Regulations 2007.
The Garda Representative Association (GRA) president, Mark O’Meara, said: “While we cannot comment on any ongoing individual cases, we firmly believe that the current suspension policy is simply not transparent enough and key rights and entitlements of members are infringed while serving suspension, namely the inordinate length of time suspended and the reasons and rationale for suspension and extended suspension."
He said: "We believe in oversight and accept the need for disciplinary procedures, however, these procedures need to be completed in a fair, transparent and timely manner to ensure that members are treated the same as any other member of the public, not left languishing on suspension for years while little or no progress is being made.
"At a time when our organisation is suffering from chronic under-resourcing and falling personnel, we are calling for these procedures to be expedited so our members have an early opportunity to defend themselves and be afforded due process.
"While we welcome the recent reduction in the number of those suspended, we would also raise fears that some court cases have been set aside and that potential convictions have been compromised because suspended members were not allowed to attend court to give evidence."
He added: "We had a recent case where a member was suspended for over three years over a loaned bicycle before being completely exonerated and this laid bare the deficiencies in the system with many members suspended for many years before their case is reviewed.”
