Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Currently, the Policing Authority has responsibility for the appointment of the Garda Commissioner under section 9 of the 2005 Act. This is to invite the Public Appointments Service, PAS, to undertake a competition to nominate a candidate to the Government along with any ancillary roles. Acting on the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing, CoFPI, the Bill will remove those roles from the new authority, whose functions are now more clearly defined. We want to make sure oversight and governance are separate, with the authority and the inspectorate coming together on oversight and the board dealing with governance.

Under the Bill, the appointment will continue to be made by the Government, and it is clear the Minister has a statutory obligation under section 4. It will then go to a selection competition undertaken by the PAS at the invitation of the Minister and the selection criteria will have to be approved not just by PAS but also by the Minister following consultation with the authority and the board. The Minister will have to have regard to the views of the authority and the board when agreeing those criteria.

We have a clear, independent process. While the Minister will start it, there will still have to be full engagement with the authority, being led by the board, and it will still have to go through the PAS. The challenge more broadly with opposing the section is that nothing is proposed to replace it, so we would be left without a clear process as to how to appoint a Garda Commissioner, which is vital. For that reason, I cannot agree to deleting the section.