Garda IT system is not fit for purpose
Top cop reveals data worries Current set-up 20 years old
THE Garda IT system is “not fit for purpose” and has caused “massive problems,” a top officer has declared.
Assistant Commissioner Michael Finn made the comments at the Oireachtas Justice Committee.
He was responding to a comment by Mick Wallace TD who blamed recent failures in recording of data on Garda management.
Mr Finn replied: “You touched on an issue that is at the root of our problems, in that we have an IT system that’s 20 years old that is not fit for purpose.
“That is at the root of a lot of issues we are discussing in relation to data and the classification of homicides and how we record it. Technology has moved on massively in the last 20 years.
“Our IT system has caused us massive problems. It is not fit for purpose.”
Meanwhile, Gurchand Singh, the head of An Garda Siochana’s Analysis Service has said he is refusing to sign off on an internal review of homicide cases. He added he had concerns about the classification of some killings as some of them “contradicted our crime counting rules”.
Dr Singh was responding to questions from Fianna Fail justice spokesman Jim O’callaghan at the Oireachtas Justice Committee. Dr Singh said of the computer system: “Our own crime counting rules say that if there was an assault causing harm and subsequently someone has died, that assault should actually be upgraded to a homicide. We had sudden deaths which looked like they were being investigated as homicides. There were times I couldn’t reconcile what was there.”