These garda stations got new
equipment to record telephone calls in 2008
A tender specifies that the equipment
installed must operate constantly, and be available for playback.
theJournal.ie 27/3/2014
ALMOST TWO DOZEN garda stations had
equipment installed or upgraded in 2008 that allowed phone calls and radio
traffic to be recorded.
A tender from the period revealed a
list of 21 stations around the country.
Independent TD Shane Ross said this
morning that an
investigation may take place in the awarding of this tender, worth
€500,000.
“The Public Accounts Committee
(PAC) will have to look at the value for money in the systems, but there is a
bigger issue of whether this recording was legal,” he said.
“Telecoms equipment”
“An Garda Siochana held a public
tender in October 2007 for a range of telecoms, video and radio equipment,” a
garda spokesperson said in a statement last night.
“An Garda Siochana is currently
compiling a full report on the matters raised recently for the Minister for
Justice and it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment further while that report is
being compiled.”
The tender specifies a “Digital
Logging Recorder System” for the playback of calls:
1.1. This specification is for a
Digital Logging Recorder System which interfaces to An Garda Siochana’s present
analog and digital communications systems. The proposed solution shall automatically
record and instantly playback telephone calls and radio traffic from An Garda
Siochana’s communications systems at the sites outlined in the following
table. The proposed system shall be designed for fault tolerant and high
availability environment (24 x 7, continuous duty operation).
1.2. Recording requirements are
outlined in the following paragraphs and table. Instant playback
shall be provided at all management/playback workstations. The tenderer
will provide one management/playback workstation per site (including
archive sites) as per specification.
These were to be installed at the
following stations:
Garda Headquarters
Phoenix Pk
DMR Headquarters,
Harcourt Sq., Dublin 2
Anglesea Street,
Cork
Drogheda
Castlebar
Bandon
Ennis
Fermoy
Henry St., Limerick
Mill St., Galway
Monaghan
Mullingar
Naas
Portlaoise
Roscommon
Sligo
Thurles
Tralee
Waterford
Wexford
It also lists twenty locations
where Dictaphone Guardian, a brand name of
a recording system capable of holding 640 hours of audio per tape,
were already installed.
Minister Shatter revealed yesterday
that these were replaced by “NICE records”, believed to be NICE Systems
Limited, an Israeli-based company which specialises in telephone voice
recording, data security and surveillance as well as systems that analyse this
recorded data.
The requirements for the
replacement of this equipment includes the following line:
Due to the fact that currently
archived calls may be required at a future date, tenderers shall also
include a proposal for the playback of archived Guardian recordings.
These devices were installed at the
following stations.
Harcourt Square
Angelesea Street
Drogheda
Castlebar
Bandon
Ennis
Fermoy
Henry St. Limerick
Letterkenny
Mill Street, Galway
Monaghan
Mullingar
Naas
Portlaoise
Roscommon
Sligo
Thurles
Tralee
Waterford
Wexford
GardaGate: Everything you
need to know in one place >
JUSTICE
MINISTER Alan Shatter should step aside to help renew public confidence in new
policing structures, Sinn Féin Justice spokesperson Pádraig Mac Lochlainn TD
told him during Wednesday’s Dáil emergency debate on the establishment of a
Commission of Investigation into Garda illegal recordings of phone calls in
Garda stations.
"Padraig MacLochlainn TD"
The debate follows the shock resignation of Garda Commissioner
Martin Callinan after being visited by a top official in the Department of
Justice on Monday night on the instructions of the Taoiseach. The Garda
Commissioner was embroiled in an ongoing political and policing nightmare for
the Government by his handling of the penalty points ‘fixing’ exposed by Garda
whistleblowers. This included his description to the Oireachtas Public Accounts
Committee of the whistleblowers’ actions as “disgusting” and his now-notorious
refusal of Mary Lou McDonald’s invitation to him at the PAC to reconsider his
strong words.
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn told the Dáil on Wednesday that a
succession of bad decisions by the Justice Minister, supported by the Fine
Gael/Labour Government, “and intended to obstruct proper scrutiny of policing,
have done untold damage to public confidence in the administration of justice
and to An Garda Síochána”.
In a lengthy examination of the Justice Minister’s record, the
Donegal deputy said:
“Minister, by your actions; through your dysfunctional
relationship with the Garda Commissioner, and by your failure to deal properly
and effectively with a series of highly-charged and important issues, you have
undermined public confidence in the position of Minister for Justice, in the
Department of Justice, in An Garda Síochána and in the administration of
justice.
“And the appointment of a Commission of Investigation on the
Garda taping of phone calls will not assuage public concern given the level of
public distrust that now exists.
“I welcome the fact that the Government has now indicated a
belated conversion to the need for a fully accountable, independent Garda
Authority. However, the minister who will have responsibility for overseeing
this process is the very minister who has been at the heart of all of the
recent scandals.
“Minister, there is an opportunity for a step change, a new
beginning, in policing, in policing structures and the administration of
justice in this state – an opportunity to get politicians out of policing
matters.
“To be successful, a new beginning to policing in this state
needs a new Minister for Justice.
“The Taoiseach has said he will not ask you to resign. That is a
mistake.
“But perhaps you could on this occasion take the right decision
and, like your friend Martin Callinan, resign.
“Minister, there is widespread public support for An Garda
Siochána.
“The service has unique, deep-rooted connections into local
communities, connections which the Government is actively dismantling through
its policy of closing Garda stations.
“But there is a culture of bad administration, a lack of
accountable and oversight mechanisms and transparency.
“This culture – which smacks of cronyism, elitism and the
corrosive, corruptive relationship with the elites – is now evident in other
institutions of the state and which the government pledged to root out.
“It is a culture that betrays the sacrifice and integrity of
rank and file gardaí.
“It is a culture that was evident in the failure to properly
investigate cases like those of Fr. Molloy; or the Dublin Monaghan bombings.
It is a culture that stems, to a large degree, from the fact
that, for many years, the legal, judicial and policing system in this state was
allowed by political leaders to become an adjunct of British counter-insurgency
strategy in the North.
“This resulted in special non-jury courts, a ‘Heavy Gang’ within
the Garda who brutalised people in custody, serious miscarriages of justice and
wrongful convictions and the abandonment of the principle that all citizens,
including suspects held in Garda custody must have rights in our justice
system.
“It is also evident in the Kerry Babies case; in the behaviour
of some Garda in Donegal that was exposed by the Morris Tribunal; in the
oppressive regime imposed on communities in Rossport in the Taoiseach’s own
constituency; and in the Kieran Boylan affair, where senior Garda protected a
drug smuggler.
“It was evident in the failure to properly investigate murders
like that of Eddie Fullerton.
“There is now an opportunity to change this.
“That means creating an independent, accountable and transparent
Garda Authority.
“Sinn Féin welcomes the Government’s belated conversion to the
necessary reform but it is worth noting that neither Fine Gael or Labour put it
in the Programme for Government.
“No police service, no senior police officer and no Garda
Commissioner should be solely accountable to a politician no matter who that
is.
“The Garda Commissioner should be fully accountable to that
authority, as should joint policing committees, and all of that should be
accountable to the Oireachtas.
“Minister, policing in this state has been for too long locked
into structures that obstruct the building of a modern 21st century,
accountable policing service.
“Play your part in building it by stepping aside and helping to
encourage renewed public confidence in new policing structures.”
Sinn
Féin Mountmellick – Serving The Community
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