Gardaí may ask the Government to change the law to give greater powers to investigate alleged sex offences committed by Defence Forces members overseas, Commissioner Drew Harris has said.
Mr Harris said he was seeking clarity on the extent of the Garda’s jurisdiction to investigate historical allegations.
The Garda has established a special operation to investigation claims of abuse made by serving and former members of the Defence Forces.
The announcement came after an independent report last week detailed allegations of sexual misconduct, bullying and discrimination within the Irish military.
The Government has pledged to set up a judge-led statutory inquiry into the allegations, which ministers have expressed shock and outrage at.
Mr Harris said the special operation would review complaints previously made to the gardaí and oversee any fresh investigations.
He has said gardaí will also be seeking to establish if there are any “predators” within the Defence Forces guilty of multiple offending.
One question that has arisen is the extent to which gardai can investigate alleged offences that may have been committed when Defence Forces members were on overseas postings.
“There is an issue in respect of what our jurisdiction might be,” Mr Harris told RTÉ Radio One on Wednesday.
“There is legislation dating back to 2004, which did extend jurisdiction in terms of criminal matters, but we want to just clarify that precisely to make sure that that can be retrospective and does apply then also to serious sexual offending.
“So that’s something that we’re addressing at the moment. And indeed, if a legislative amendment is required, then we would seek that as well.”
Mr Harris said he was appealing to any current or former members of the Defences Forces to come forward if they had been a victim of a sexual offence. He assured them their complaint would be treated with “absolute confidentiality”.
Asked about his concerns over possible predators within the Defence Forces, Mr Harris said: “One has to look at the experience in other institutions, where people use a position of power and an imbalance in power actually then to conduct offending and, having long experience of dealing with other cases of historical abuse in institutions, you can see these patterns of behaviour and individuals, a small number of individuals, are multiple offenders.”
Tánaiste Micheál Martin is to establish an oversight group to ensure changes are made within the military.
He said on Tuesday that a date had not yet been chosen for when a public inquiry would be established, but said he was liaising with the Attorney General on establishing the initial steps.
Commenting on the new operation, a Garda spokeswoman said: “An Garda Síochána is examining all files held in relation to allegations of sexual assault within the Defence Forces, both currently under investigation and pre-existing.
“In response to the report of the Independent Review Group – Defence Forces, An Garda Siochana has established a dedicated operation under Detective Chief Superintendent Garda National Protective Services Bureau (GNPSB) to oversee all Garda investigations into allegations of sexual assault within the Defence Forces, historical, current or future.
“Where individual allegations are made by former or serving members of the Defence Forces to An Garda Síochána, all allegations will be investigated by Divisional Protective Service Units (DPSU), under the oversight of the GNPSB.”
The Garda spokeswoman said anyone can ask to speak with a member from a DPSU in confidence by contacting any Garda station or the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666111.
