Garda Síochána Complaints Appeal Board

The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) is an independent statutory body in Ireland charged with overseeing the Garda Síochána, the national police force. It is a three-member body established under the Garda Síochána Act, 2005 to deal with complaints from members of the public about the conduct of Gardaí (police officers).

The commission was established in December 2005, and replaced the Garda Síochána Complaints Board. The Commission has more powers than its predecessor and, unlike the Complaints Board, it is not made up of members of the force. The first three commissioners were appointed in May 2006 and the commission commenced hearing complaints in May 2007.

It is empowered to:

The GSOC is mandated to provide an independent and effective civilian oversight of policing and to deal with the public's complaints concerning Gardaí fairly and efficiently so that everyone can have confidence in the complaints system.

Three people make up the GSOC. As of December 2012, they were Carmel Foley (former Director of Consumer Affairs, first appointed in 2006), Simon O'Brien (a former Metropolitan Police officer, appointed in 2011) and Kieran FitzGerald (formerly a journalist, appointed in 2011). Past members include Conor Brady (former editor of The Irish Times and author of a book on the history of the Gardaí) and Dermot Gallagher (former secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs) who replaced the late Judge Kevin Haugh as chairman.

According to its 2007 Annual Report, in its first year the GSOC received 2,084 complaints from members of the public and 294 referrals from the Garda Commissioner. A total of 556 allegations were deemed inadmissible. Since the inception of the office, the GSOC had sent nine files to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), five of which the director decided not to proceed with prosecution. A decision on the other four were pending.

Because of the large number of complaints in 2007 from County Mayo, arising from protests linked to the Corrib gas controversy, the Commission wrote to then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Brian Lenihan requesting a review of how the protests were policed under section 106 of the Garda Síochána Act. The minister said he "did not feel it was appropriate to proceed". His successor Dermot Ahern gave a similar answer in the Dáil when the request was repeated by Sinn Féin two months later.

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