PAC to quiz gardaí on Stepaside reopening

The Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) intends to call senior garda officers and civilian administrators to question them about the reopening of Stepaside Garda Station.

The Irish Mail on Sunday recently reported that the PAC had received information that An Garda Síochána’s head of human resources, John Barrett, and other senior officers were not consulted about the reopening.

Sources at the PAC say that four men will be called in the coming weeks to give a detailed explanation and timeline of the decision.

They are: Mr Barrett; Assistant Commissioner Pat Leahy, who is in charge of policing in the Dublin region; John O’Driscoll, Assistant Commissioner, National Support Services: and the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Noel Waters.

What is likely to keep the heat turned up on this issue is the fact that Garda hR chief John Barrett – who previously supplied an explosive dossier of detailed notes, memos and minutes backing up his claims against Garda Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan – is expected to be asked if he was consulted on the issue of Stepaside Garda Station.

‘The department is scared, because it knows that he will write in and he will say that as head of hR he wasn’t consulted one iota in relation to Stepaside and that will raise a whole load of other questions,’ said a PAC source.

A senior garda told the MoS: ‘When you reopen a garda station, you don’t just open the front door and turn on the electricity.

‘Personnel – meaning gardaí – have to be allocated to the station, rosters have to be constructed. Garda cars, radios and any other logistics have to be arranged.

‘None of this was communicated.’