BOTH THE MINISTER for Justice and Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan have received what is expected to be a critical report from the Garda Inspectorate on the conduct of investigations into serious crime.

In March this year, the inspectorate released a damning report which found “inconsistent and widespread” breaches of penalty points policy within the force. The Inspectorate’s chief Robert Olsen has also praised whistleblower Maurice McCabe on a number of occasions for his courage in highlighting failures in the system.

This most recent report looks at how gardaí investigated serious crime cases over the last number of years. RTÉ reports that it is believed to be severely critical in the way that serious crime is investigated and recorded by gardaí – particularly crimes like burglary, theft and robbery.

The Department of Justice said Minister Frances Fitzgerald is “examining a very detailed report”. It said that the report will be brought to government in the near future and will be published afterwards.

A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána told TheJournal.ie that the report is “very extensive and detailed. They said the report is now being examined in-depth.

“An Garda Síochána will not be commenting further on the report until its publication.”

Read: Damning report finds “inconsistent and widespread” breaches of penalty points policy>

Read: I wouldn’t have treated whistleblowers that way — Garda Inspectorate Chief>