Dr. Des Hogan:

The only comment I would add is that when we give this training, one of the responses we get is that there is somewhat of a deficit at middle management level, certainly in An Garda Síochána, particularly in planning for kidnappings or serious crime prevention in terms of the way that links in to what it is to be a manager and a leader within the police force, what they can expect in terms of services to give to the people they are directing, and what they can expect from the people above them also. From a human rights perspective we believe more training may be needed at middle management level but we would need to go in and examine the resources within An Garda Síochána for training and for continuous professional development, CPD, because the budget for Templemore Garda College has been slashed in recent years and as new gardaí are recruited, we will need to make sure we have a template that works and where people can be refreshed, but that should be part of the organisational ethos. It should not just be training and content; it should be training, attitude and behaviours in terms of how one responds to the citizen so that one's first default position is one of respect rather than a different approach.