O'Loan: 'Totally inappropriate' that gardaí work in Ombudsman's office
The former Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland has called it "totally inappropriate" that gardaí work in the GSOC offices.
Nuala O'Loan was giving her reaction to the Cooke report which found this week there was no evidence of surveillance at the offices of the Garda Ombudsman.
The Garda Ombudsman is responsible for receiving and dealing with all complaints made by members of the public concerning the conduct of members of the Garda Síochána.
Ms O'Loan said steps should be taken to improve the relationship between the watchdog and the force, including putting a proper division of responsibility in place between the Minister for Justice, the Gardaí and its Ombudsman.
The Garda Ombudsman said two superintendents currently work in their offices on secondment.
Ms O'Loan said she believed relationships and roles should be more concrete.
"As I understand it, there are currently Garda Síochána officers working in the office of the Garda Ombudsman. To me that's totally inappropriate," she said, recommending that measures be taken to "define limits and boundaries".
