Commission of investigation (Ireland)

Last updated

MoIn the Republic of Ireland, a commission of investigation is a statutory commission established under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 to investigate a matter of "urgent public concern". [1] [2] A commission of investigation is a less expensive but less powerful alternative to a tribunal of inquiry. [1] [3] Commissions of investigation may take evidence in private, whereas tribunals of inquiry are held in public. In 2017, the Fine Gael-led government planned to have Peter Charleton chair a commission into the Garda whistleblower scandal; [4] [5] opposition demands led it to change this to a tribunal. [6]

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse had been established in 2000 by a specific Act of the Oireachtas, [7] with further acts passed subsequently to amend its operation. [8] The Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 was intended to provide a template so that further commissions could be established more simply, by statutory instrument after a resolution by the houses of the Oireachtas.

List of Commissions of investigation established under the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 [9]
Statutory instrument(s)CommissionTopic of investigationReport (external link)
Dublin and Monaghan Bombings Dublin and Monaghan bombings MacEntee Report [ permanent dead link ]
False confession by Dean Lyons to the 1997 Grangegorman killings Birmingham Report
Child Sexual Abuse Sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin Murphy Report
Leas Cross Nursing Home Leas Cross scandal O'Donovan Report
Death of Gary Douch in Mountjoy Prison McMorrow Report
Banking Sector Irish banking crisis: Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society Misjudging Risk: Causes of the Systemic Banking Crisis in Ireland (Nyberg Report)
Fennelly Commission Garda phone recordings scandal; Martin Callinan retirement; Garda investigation of death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier [10] Interim Report (Callinan retirement) Final Report (other matters)
MacLochlainn CommissionFatal shooting by Garda of Real IRA member Ronan MacLochlainn in 1998. Chaired by Mary Rose Gearty. [11] MacLochlainn Report
Bailieboro Garda DistrictMisconduct allegations contained in the Guerin Report O'Higgins Report
Mother and Baby Homes Commission Mother and baby homes and county homes between 1922 and 1998. [12] Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes
IBRC Commission Certain matters concerning transactions entered into by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation. [13] [14] Report on the transaction in relation to Site servPlc and principles and policies within IBRC on interest rates
(sole member Marjorie Farrelly)Abuses at a foster home in the South-East. [15] [16] [17] Not yet submitted [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oireachtas</span> Parliament of the Republic of Ireland

The Oireachtas, sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the bicameral parliament of Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garda Síochána</span> Police service of Ireland

An Garda Síochána, more commonly referred to as the Gardaí or "the Guards", is the national police service of Ireland. The service is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

A tribunal of inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body. In many common law countries, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada, such a public inquiry differs from a royal commission in that a public inquiry accepts evidence and conducts its hearings in a more public forum and focuses on a more specific occurrence. Interested members of the public and organisations may not only make (written) evidential submissions as is the case with most inquiries, but also listen to oral evidence given by other parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis O'Brien</span> Irish billionaire businessman

Denis O'Brien is an Irish billionaire businessman, and the founder and owner of Digicel. He was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and was Ireland's richest native-born citizen for a period of several years. His business interests have also extended to aircraft leasing, utilities support (Actavo), petroleum, football, and healthcare. As former chairman of the Esat Digifone consortium, O'Brien was questioned by the Moriarty Tribunal, which investigated the awarding of a mobile phone licence to Esat, among other things.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Shatter</span> Irish former Fine Gael politician

Alan Joseph Shatter is an Irish lawyer, author and former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister for Justice and Equality and Minister for Defence from 2011 to 2014. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin South constituency from 1981 to 2002 and from 2007 to 2016.

John Carthy was a 27-year-old Irish citizen with known psychiatric illnesses who was shot dead by the Garda Emergency Response Unit in controversial circumstances on 20 April 2000, after a twenty-five-hour siege at his home in Toneymore, Abbeylara, County Longford.

Capital punishment in the Republic of Ireland was abolished in statute law in 1990, having been abolished in 1964 for most offences including ordinary murder. The last person to be executed by the British state in Ireland was Robert McGladdery, who was hanged on 20 December 1961 in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The last person to be executed by the state in the Republic of Ireland was Michael Manning, hanged for murder on 20 April 1954. All subsequent death sentences in the Republic of Ireland, the last handed down in 1985, were commuted by the President, on the advice of the Government, to terms of imprisonment of up to 40 years. The Twenty-first Amendment of the constitution, passed by referendum in 2001, prohibits the reintroduction of the death penalty, even during a state of emergency or war. Capital punishment is also forbidden by several human rights treaties to which the state is a party.

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.

In Ireland, "publication or utterance of blasphemous matter", defamatory of any religion, was a criminal offence until 17 January 2020. It was a requirement of the 1937 Constitution until removed after a 2018 referendum. The common law offence of blasphemous libel, applicable only to Christianity and last prosecuted in 1855, was believed to fulfil the constitutional requirement until a 1999 ruling that it was incompatible with the constitution's guarantee of religious equality. The Defamation Act 2009 included a provision intended to fill the lacuna while being "virtually impossible" to enforce, and no prosecution was made under it. The 2009 statute increased controversy, with proponents of freedom of speech and freedom of religion arguing for amending the constitution. After the 2018 constitutional amendment, a separate bill to repeal the 2009 provision and residual references to blasphemy was enacted in 2019 by the Oireachtas (parliament) and came into force in 2020. The Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, which includes religion among the characteristics protected from incitement to hatred, remains in force.

The Irish Human Rights Commission has been merged with the Equality Authority. Both former organisations were dissolved and their functions transferred to a new statutory body, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission on 1 November 2014.

The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) was the name given to the entity formed in 2011 by the court-mandated merger of the state-owned banking institutions Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society.

The Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2011 was a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ireland to provide for the Houses of the Oireachtas to conduct full inquiries. The bill was passed by both houses of the Oireachtas, but rejected at a referendum held on 27 October 2011.

This article is about the firearms policy in the Republic of Ireland. Irish law allows firearm possession on may-issue basis. With approximately seven civilian firearms per 100 people, Ireland is the 107th most armed country in the world.

A penalty points system has been in operation since 2002 for regulatory offences relating to driving licences in the Republic of Ireland. More serious driving offences are not included in the penalty points system but result in automatic driving bans or imprisonment. After controversy about alleged flaws in the implementation, an Independent Oversight Authority was established in 2015 to make annual reports on its operation.

In 2014, material was revealed by two whistleblowers of the Garda Síochána, Maurice McCabe and John Wilson, to the Confidential Recipient. The disclosures and the handling of the disclosures, led to the resignation of Ireland's Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter. It led to the resignation of the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, and the retirement of his successor Nóirín O'Sullivan.

The IBRC commission of investigation is an Irish government commission of investigation to look into the transactions of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) that led to its failure.

The Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland is an amendment to the Constitution of Ireland which altered the provisions regulating divorce. It removed the constitutional requirement for a defined period of separation before a Court may grant a dissolution of marriage, and eased restrictions on the recognition of foreign divorces. The amendment was effected by an act of the Oireachtas, the Thirty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2019.

Francis Dominick Murphy is an Irish judge and barrister who served as judge of the Irish High Court between 1982 and 1996 and was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ireland in 1996, serving until 2002. He was the chair of the group which produced the Ferns Report in 2005.

References

  1. 1 2 "Commissions of Investigation & Inquiries". Department of Justice and Equality. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  2. ↑ "Commissions of Investigation Act 2004". Irish Statute Book . Archived from the original on 16 February 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  3. ↑ Beer, Jason (2011-07-28). Public Inquiries. Oxford: OUP. §§12.31–12.36. ISBN   9780199287772.
  4. ↑ "Statement by the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality on the establishment of a Commission of Investigation" (Press release). Dept of Justice and Equality. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  5. ↑ "Govt publishes Commission terms of reference". RTÉ.ie . 8 February 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  6. ↑ Bardon, Sarah; Clarke, Vivienne; O'Regan, Michael; O'Halloran, Marie (14 February 2017). "Kenny 'gave wrong information' about Zappone meeting". The Irish Times . Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  7. ↑ "Commission To Inquire Into Child Abuse Act, 2000". Irish Statute Book . Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  8. ↑ "Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (Amendment) Act 2005". Irish Statute Book . Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  9. ↑ "Legislation Directory: Commissions of Investigations Act 2004". Irish Statute Book . Effects: S. 3(1), Commission of Investigation established. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  10. ↑ McConnell, Daniel (12 June 2015). "What is the Fennelly Commission of Inquiry? - Independent.ie". Irish Independent . Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  11. ↑ "Remarks to the Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality by Ms Frances Fitzgerald, TD, Minister for Justice and Equality on the motion seeking approval of the draft Order establishing the Commission of Investigation into the fatal shooting of Ronan Mac Lochlainn by members of the Garda Síochána in the course of an armed robbery in Ashford, Co. Wicklow in May 1998". MerrionStreet.ie. Irish Government. 16 July 2014. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  12. ↑ Book (eISB), electronic Irish Statute. "electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB)". www.irishstatutebook.ie. Retrieved 2022-08-21.
  13. ↑ "Taoiseach rules out deadline on IBRC investigation". RTÉ.ie . 8 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  14. ↑ "Draft Commission of Investigation (Certain matters concerning transactions entered into by IBRC) Order 2015: Motion (Resumed) (Continued)". Dáil Éireann debates. 10 June 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  15. ↑ "Commission of Investigation (Certain Matters Relative to Disability Service in the South East and Related Matters) (Revised): Motion". Dáil debates. Oireachtas. 9 March 2017. pp. 24–28. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  16. ↑ "Relatives want other cases included in 'Grace' inquiry". RTÉ.ie . 7 March 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  17. ↑ "Government to revise terms of 'Grace' inquiry". RTÉ.ie . 8 March 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  18. ↑ "Full list of the 12 tribunals and commissions of investigation under way". The Irish Times . 9 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.