An invitation to come in for a chat is not small talk, and it is not an arrest. It is a request to interview someone who has not been arrested yet.
Emergency line: 087 122 3080, answered day and night, including weekends and bank holidays.
Tell us where you are and we will call you straight back.
If someone is in a Garda station now, calling or WhatsApp is far faster than this form.
The word “voluntary” describes how you got there. It does not describe what happens once you are inside.
Nobody has arrested you. You attend by agreement and you may leave at any time, unless and until you are arrested.
You are entitled to legal advice, and to have a solicitor with you.
It is not. The interview is recorded. You are cautioned. What you say is evidence and can be used in exactly the same way as anything said after an arrest.
A voluntary attendance can become an arrest in the same room, in the same hour, the moment the Gardaí decide they have grounds.
Voluntary does not mean low risk. If the Gardaí are asking you to attend, you are being treated as someone who may have something to answer. The only genuine difference from an arrest is that you walked in, which is often read afterwards as confidence, and only rarely as caution.
There are a small number of realistic reasons, and they call for different answers.
You are entitled to ask which of these it is. Ask what the enquiry concerns, whether you are being treated as a suspect, and whether the interview will be under caution. If it is under caution, you are not a witness. A solicitor can ask these questions for you, and will usually get a fuller answer.
The right answer is neither to refuse flatly nor to agree to come in tomorrow morning on your own. There is a third option, and it is the one to use.
The conversation that arranges the interview is not itself the interview, but things said in it are still things said. Keep it to the arrangements.
“I’m happy to arrange a time through my solicitor. Can I take your name, station and a contact number, and they will be in touch?” This is a normal, unremarkable answer. It is not obstruction and it is not treated as one.
The member’s name and rank, the station, the date and time of the call, and anything they said about what it concerns. Do it immediately, while it is exact.
Call 087 122 3080 or message us on WhatsApp. We will contact the station, find out what the enquiry actually concerns and whether you are being treated as a suspect, and tell you whether attending is in your interest.
Not with anyone else who might be involved, and not online. If the matter concerns other people, contact with them can create a second problem on top of the first.
Arranging an interview through a solicitor is routine. It gives the Gardaí a reliable point of contact, it usually produces more disclosure before the interview than you would get on your own, and it means you walk in knowing what is going to be put to you.
Practically identical to an interview after arrest, with one difference that can disappear without warning.
You are told that you are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so, and that anything you say will be taken down and may be given in evidence. That caution is the tell: it means this is a suspect interview.
Same equipment, same procedure, same status as evidence as an interview after arrest.
Advising you before it starts, present during it, and able to stop it when something new is put to you so that you can take instructions in private.
You can end a voluntary interview and go. But if the Gardaí conclude during the interview that they have grounds, you can be arrested there and then, and the interview continues under a different regime with a detention clock running.
If you are arrested mid-interview, everything changes and nothing looks different. You are now detained under a statutory power, a custody record opens, and the sequence set out on our page on what happens after you are arrested begins. This is precisely why walking in alone is a poor idea even when you are certain you have nothing to hide: the room you leave is not always the room you entered.
“Co-operating” is not a single act. People agree to all four of these because they have agreed to the first, and each carries different consequences.
A written statement is a document you have signed. It is harder to qualify later than an answer given in a recorded interview, and it is the one most often regretted.
A phone is not one piece of evidence, it is every message, photograph and location record you have. Whether it is handed over voluntarily or under a power matters, and so does what you agree to.
Fingerprints, photographs, DNA and other samples all have their own rules about consent, authorisation and the consequences of refusal.
How an identification is conducted can decide whether it is admissible at all. Taking part in one without advice is a decision made without knowing what is at stake.
Each of these is easier to decide with advice than to undo without it. None of them has to be decided in the moment: it is entirely normal to say that you want to speak to your solicitor first.
Yes. Whether that is the right move is a different question, and it is the one worth taking advice on.
If you have not been arrested, you are not obliged to attend. But refusing outright is rarely the strongest position. If the Gardaí have grounds to arrest, a refusal may simply produce an arrest, and an arrest at six in the morning at your home is worse in every respect than an interview arranged for a Tuesday afternoon through your solicitor.
There are also situations where attending, with advice and with a prepared position, is clearly the better course: where there is a straightforward explanation, where documents answer the question, or where the enquiry is genuinely about someone else. A solicitor who has spoken to the station first is in a position to tell you which of these you are in. Without that call, you are guessing.
What is almost never right is the middle option most people take: agreeing on the phone, attending alone, and deciding what to say in the room.
What people ask us after a Garda has asked them to come in.
No. If you have not been arrested, attendance is voluntary and you are free to leave at any time unless and until you are arrested. Whether refusing is in your interest is a separate question: if the Gardaí have grounds to arrest, a flat refusal may simply produce an arrest instead. The usual best answer is to say you will arrange a time through your solicitor, then ring one.
Yes. A voluntary suspect interview is recorded and you are cautioned in the same terms as after an arrest, and what you say carries the same weight as evidence. The caution is the clearest indicator of how you are being treated: if you are cautioned, you are not being interviewed as a witness.
Yes, and you should. You are entitled to legal advice before the interview and to have a solicitor present during it. Arranging the attendance through a solicitor is routine and usually produces more information about what the enquiry concerns before you walk in.
Yes. If the Gardaí form the view during the interview that they have grounds to arrest, they can arrest you in the room and the interview continues under a statutory detention power with a custody record and a detention clock. This is the main practical reason not to attend alone.
Be polite, do not answer questions about the allegation on the phone, and say that you are happy to arrange a time through your solicitor. Take the member's name, rank, station and contact number, write down anything you were told about what it concerns, and ring a solicitor before agreeing a date.
Not without advice. A signed statement is a document that is much harder to qualify afterwards than an answer given in a recorded interview, and agreeing to attend does not commit you to giving one. Making a statement, handing over a phone, providing samples and taking part in an identification procedure are four separate decisions, each with different consequences.
One call before you set a date changes what the interview looks like. We will find out what the enquiry concerns, tell you whether you are being treated as a suspect, advise you on whether attending is in your interest, and go with you if it is.
General information, not legal advice. This page describes Irish criminal procedure in general terms. Every case turns on its own facts and the law changes. Nothing here creates a solicitor–client relationship, and no outcome is promised or implied. For advice on your own situation, speak to a solicitor.
Ferrys Solicitors LLP is regulated by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority. Content reviewed by Tony Collier, solicitor. Last reviewed PENDING.
