64 Europe and Central Asia Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January – June 2007 deployment of tasers to Garda personnel other than ERU personnel should be the subject of careful consideration, taking into account the ERU’s experience and the experience of usage in other police services. AI considers the use of tasers to be an inherently excessive use of force when used on certain vulnerable groups, including people with mental illness. The organization therefore recommends that tasers should not be used at all in cases such as that of John Carthy. AI believes that taser use in such cases constitutes a violation of international standards which provide that law enforcement officials should use only the minimum necessary force. Individuals with mental illness should receive appropriate treatment, and alternatives to the use of force should be found, in line with best practice. Police complaints mechanisms (update to AI Index: POL 10/001/2007 – Ireland) The Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC), established in December 2005 to investigate complaints of ill-treatment by members of the police service, became operational in May. Complaints against the police were therefore no longer dealt with by the Garda Síochána Complaints Board (GSCB), which had been widely criticized, including by AI, as ineffective and lacking in independence. The GSCB continued to process cases already before it, but all new cases from May onwards would go to the GSOC. Investigators employed by the GSOC will now investigate all cases where it appears that “the conduct of a member of the Garda Síochána may have resulted in the death of, or serious harm to, a person”, but other complaints may continue to be investigated by Gardai themselves. Places of detention (update to AI Index: POL 10/001/2007 – Ireland) Following the enactment of the Prisons Act 2007, an Inspector of Prisons was appointed on a statutory basis for the first time. The Act provides that it is not a Amnesty International function of the Inspector to investigate or adjudicate on individual prisoner complaints. A study of young male offenders in detention schools published in May by the School of Psychology at University College Dublin, entitled Emotional Intelligence, Mental Health and Juvenile Delinquency, found that 83 per cent had at least one psychiatric disorder, and that the vast majority did not receive any treatment for such disorders. Residential facilities for vulnerable groups (update to AI Index: POL 10/001/2007 – Ireland) The Health Act 2007, which was enacted in April, places the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) on a statutory basis, under the name of the Office of the Chief Inspector of Social Services, and provides for its role to be expanded beyond residential centres for children in care to include the inspection and registration of residential services in the public, private and voluntary sectors for older people and people with a disability. The sections of the Act that confer these functions will be enacted on a phased basis and, until they are brought into force, the registration and inspection system for such residential services remains inadequate. Asylum-seekers and victims of trafficking (update to AI Index: POL 10/001/2007 – Ireland) The Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill, published in April, contained proposals for consolidating and reforming Ireland’s immigration and asylum legislation, and for the establishment of single protection procedure to assess all claims for protection. Concerns were raised in relation to several proposals in the Bill, including the lack of clarity in distinguishing between refugee protection and subsidiary forms of protection, and the failure, in provisions relating to the establishment of a Protection Review Tribunal, to address the lack of AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007