Defective garda holsters will ‘haunt’ Justice Minister, Alan Kelly says

The “tragedy” caused by gardai being given faulty holsters will “haunt” the Minister for Justice, a Labour TD has said.

Alan Kelly has raised issues about defective holsters in the Dail multiple times, particularly in the context of Detective Garda Colm Horkan, 49, who was murdered while on duty in 2020.

He was shot several times with his own gun on June 17 2020 in Castlerea, Co Roscommon.

Mr Kelly previously told the Dail he had been issued with a defective holster.

In a separate incident, Mr Kelly said an accidental discharge of an official-issued garda firearm occurred outside the Israeli Embassy on June 11 2020, just under a week before Mr Horkan’s death, and resulted in life-changing injuries to another garda.

The Tipperary North TD had previously said forensic experts had determined the holster could engage the trigger and fire the weapon of its own accord, and said firearms could be removed with the retention strap fastened.

The defective holsters were raised again by Mr Kelly during a Dail debate on Wednesday which also touched on other firearms-related matters and concerns over evidence storage.

On Wednesday, he introduced what he said was “one of the most important motions” he had ever brought forward to the Dail.

He told Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan there are many matters relating to gardai which have not been dealt with, including “legacy issues”, as well as recruitment and retention.

“You have to deal with legacy issues.

“You can never say to me you don’t know enough about these because I’ve raised hundreds of parliamentary questions with you.”

On Wednesday, Mr Kelly also made reference to prosecutions taken against Limerick gardai over fixed charged penalty notices, which resulted in not guilty verdicts or dropped charges, as well as the suspension of a garda over loaning a bicycle to a neighbour.

He told Mr O’Callaghan: “When it comes to the disgraceful way in which Limerick gardai have been treated, and the fact that your Taoiseach and your Tanaiste believes it needs to be investigated – but for some reason you don’t.

“When it comes to the issue of the holsters and the way in which that issue has been dealt with, the loss of fingerprints, the bike scandal, all of these issues and many more.”

Mr Kelly also said he had a “deep concern” about the way the Department of Justice answered parliamentary questions, as well as its “dysfunctional” relationship with An Garda Siochana.

In response, Minister O’Callaghan moved a Government countermotion and said he could not comment on individual disciplinary matters.

He added that some matters were before the courts and that internal garda discipline was under the remit of the Commissioner.

At the end of the debate, Mr Kelly said it would have been “respectful” if Mr O’Callaghan had remained in the chamber for his closing remarks.

He went on to talk about “legacy issues” relating to firearm and drug storage, the loss of data around 17,000 fingerprints, and withdrawn disciplinary processes that affected multiple gardai.

Mr Kelly also referenced the case of 22-year-old Evan Fitzgerald, from Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, who died by suicide with a gun after discharging it at a shopping centre in Co Carlow last year.

He had been awaiting trial on weapons charges from the previous year, which Mr Kelly said related to guns placed in a car by gardai.

“I could also talk about the dysfunctional nature of the Department of Justice working with An Garda Siochana, and the fact that I, as an opposition TD, had to ring the Minister for Justice to tell him that the guns that were put in the car that Evan Fitzgerald was in were put in by An Garda Siochana – he didn’t know, I had to tell him.

“So what sort of a functional relationship is it where I have more intelligence than the actual Minister for Justice, and that whole case, that tragic case, which should never, ever have happened, will need to be investigated.”

Mr Kelly concluded by saying the issues around the faulty holsters “will haunt this Government”.

He said: “Most of all, I can also talk about what I’ve raised in here and in committee on numerous occasions, in relation to how gardai were given faulty holsters – and the impact that has had and the impact it has had on the lives of serving gardai.

“And the tragedy it has caused – and this will haunt this Government and will haunt the previous Government, it will haunt this Minister, and it will haunt (previous Justice Minister Helen) McEntee.

“And what will also haunt them is the manner in which they did not deal appropriately with protected disclosures that were made to them.”