The Friday Panel joined Máire Moynahan in studio today to discuss the week’s major news stories. Dr. Geraldine Mooney Simmie, a Lecturer in Education in UL, Gearoid Mannion from Tom Mannion Travel Worldchoice in Ennis and former TV Presenter and committee member of the Ennis Book Club Festival, Ciana Campbell were in studio and talked about how the Government is setting up a Commission of Investigation into "a very serious issue" involving the Gardaí. The Cabinet decided on the move after it was claimed a system was in place in a large number of Garda stations whereby incoming and outgoing telephone calls were taped and recorded. The implications of the garda taping allegations are being felt in the courts. The President of the High Court has issued guide lines to judges – saying they should raise the issue at the start of criminal trials or as early as possible. And yesterday the Special Criminal Court was adjourned over the issue. Now, Criminal lawyers around the country are gearing up to deal with the ramifications that thousands of phone calls were secretly taped in garda stations across the country – possibly for decades. It's impossible to know yet how many cases will be affected, but the Taoiseach admitted earlier that Tribunals as well as court cases could be affected by fallout. A statement from the Government says from the information available, the practice of making recordings was in place for many years and was discontinued in November of 2013 – It is not yet clear why this practice was in operation.
The panel also talked about how the country's largest teacher's union is denying holding the education system to ransom with its plans for industrial action over the new Junior Cycle. 88% of ASTI members have voted against co-operating with the Education Minister's plans for a new programme focused on in-house assessment marked by teachers. Union members won't take part in meetings and training events for the new system, which is due to be phased in from September. The general secretary of the largest teacher's union has insisted their industrial action over Junior Cert reform is justified. Members of the union say they are concerned that the level of standards in schools will fall as a result of what they describe as the rushed introduction of the new curriculum.
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