Dangerously defective gun holsters used by An Garda Siochána that were “shredded and removed” from circulation in 2023 are still freely available, the Dáil has been told.
Labour TD Alan Kelly held up one of the holsters as he said: “I can get my hands on as many of them as I want”.
Mr Kelly said such a holster was worn by the late Detective Garda Colm Horkan when he was shot dead in 2020 with his own gun while on patrol duty in Castlerea, Co Roscommon.
The Labour TD said that even though the garda’s holster was “bagged and tagged” for ballistics it was not sent to the GNTB (Garda National Technical Bureau) for investigation.
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He also referred to an incident in which a garda was injured in 2020 after his gun accidentally discharged while on protection duties at the Israeli embassy in Dublin. He too had been using a defective holster, the Dáil heard.
The Tipperary TD questioned why a second report into the embassy incident was requested “when the second report basically contradicted the first report saying that the holster was defective”.
Mr Kelly also referred to an incident in which 8kg of “pure cocaine” was discovered by a private company disposing of lockers from Garda headquarters in Dublin after it was “mistakenly dumped” by State agency Forensic Science Ireland. “Only for the private company being so honourable that cocaine could have ended up back on the streets.”
The Labour TD was speaking during the first day of a two-day debate on policing and community safety. “There is a deep concern about this and what else we don’t know about how firearms are managed,” he said.
The holsters had been procured from a Kildare equine saddlery, but in March 2023 the office of the Minister for Justice was informed the holsters had been “removed and shredded beyond use”.
In June 2020, following the incident at the Israeli embassy, Garda forensic experts discovered the leather pistol holster used by that garda “was so dangerously defective that the holster could actually engage the trigger and fire the weapon of its own accord”.
“It was further identified by the ballistic experts that the holster was so poorly designed the firearm could be removed from the holster with the so-called retention strap fully fastened.”
This meant the gun could be removed by an individual other than the garda carrying the firearm, he said.
Less than a week after the Israeli embassy incident, on June 20th, 2020, Det Garda Horkan “was murdered with his own official firearm”, he said.
The Labour TD also said 392 abandoned firearms were left in a container in Garda headquarters but that documentation was only available for 102 weapons; only 154 were recorded on the Garda pulse information system; and 92 had no serial number.
