The Garda emergency calls scandal has not undermined public confidence in the force, according to the Justice Minister.

It emerged earlier this year that gardaí cancelled more than 200,000 emergency calls between 2019 and 2020.

More than 3,000 of the calls related to alleged domestic abuse and Gardaí have been attempting to contact almost half of them in the months since.

An external examination of the situation, published by the Policing Authority yesterday, found that Gardaí receive extensive training in call-taking and dispatch – and members should have known that calla can only be cancelled in limited circumstances.

It warned that the Garda supervision system in regional control rooms was either ‘not followed or not effective’.

Speaking today, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said it is important the mistakes are not repeated:

“It is very clear from the commissioner’s response at the Policing Authority yesterday that mistakes have been made,” she said.

“In particular, he apologised and focused on the area of domestic violence where potentially more people were impacted by this issue.

“I think it is clear that we need to learn from this. There are recommendations, some of which are already being implemented and, where further recommendations are made, they will be implemented too.”

Minister McEntee said Government will support the force in implementing all of the recommendations.

She said the new ‘Supporting a Victim’s Journey’ plan would help survivors and vulnerable witnesses in sexual violence cases.

“That is, at the core of it, a plan to make sure that our criminal justice system is victim-centred and obviously the Gardai play a huge role in that,” she said.

“So, any recommendations that may come out of this report, we will support the Gardaí to implement them and obviously any further work that we can do in the wider space of domestic violence I will continue to do that.”

Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said disciplinary investigations are underway within the force.