Fennelly Commission considers responses to Garda report

The Fennelly Commission, set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the retirement of former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan and the recording of telephone calls in Garda stations, is still considering responses it received from interested parties, a spokeswoman has said.

As many as 60 people received the draft interim report from the commission, chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Nial Fennelly, in June.The deadline for responses was July 24th.

“The commission is now considering the submissions it received. Once it has completed the report, it will be forwarding that to the Taoiseach,” she said.

The commission has not said when it will be in a position to forward the report to Mr Kenny, whose department set up the commission .

Mr Kenny has said that the report will be published by Government.

The interim report solely concerns the events leading up to and following Mr Callinan's decision to retire from An Garda Síochána in 2014.

The other terms of reference related to a long- standing practice of gardaí to covertly record calls coming in and out of certain Garda stations.

The practice, which occurred over many years, came to wider public attention during the discovery phase of the civil action taken by Ian Bailey against the State over the manner in which gardaí investigated the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plaintier.