In an extensive and hugely revealing interview in the new Hot Press, Independent TD Clare Daly speaks out about An Garda Síochána. She describes the Gardaí as an "undisciplined organisation" posing a "countrywide problem."
Daly has been heavily involved with the Garda whistle-blowers. She tells Olaf Tyaransen that she was "shocked" by what she discovered. While the early impression was that the termination of penalty points for "connected" people was the biggest issue, Daly now says that "it was a little bit like getting Al Capone on tax evasion."
She reveals to Hot Press that many people around the country "whose life's circumstances put themselves in the way of the guards” have been in touch with her.
"It could be something like a family member who was killed in tragic circumstances not being investigated," she says. "It could be living next to somebody who is connected, and there might be a land dispute or a planning application dispute.
"They could be fitted up for anything – and their whole life then takes a different tack. The stories we have heard, and the families that we have been involved with at the hands of Garda malpractice has been quite shocking – beyond what I would ever have dreamed."
Elsewhere, on the topics of both prostitution and legalising drugs, Daly asserts that "prohibition never works."
Making it clear that she would legalise sex work, she says:
"I find it incredible that if you try to have a balanced discussion about this you're literally vilified as somebody who is anti-women. I don't accept that, absolutely not.”
And on marijuana, she concludes: “We will legalise cannabis in this country. We have to. It's a normal part of life for a lot of people."
For more with Clare Daly, who also talks candidly about being arrested for trespassing at Shannon and for 'drink-driving', the Irish Water situation and why the brewing Nama scandal will "make the banking inquiry look like a walk in the park", pick up the new issue of Hot Press, on sale from Thursday July 23 or click here to purchase online now