Ms Carmel Foley:

As the commissioner who was here from those early times, I should comment. At the time, we understood that one ombudsman in Northern Ireland was suitable for the size of the police force there. As the police force here is about three times the size of the North's, I believe that was one of the reasons for having a three-person commission. Similarly, in Britain at the time, the Independent Police Complaints Commission had about 17 commissioners for the much larger forces they had to deal with. As has been acknowledged, however, there are different models in different countries. Our experience is of working as three commissioners bringing different strengths. That has been our experience from the beginning. Of course, we realise and accept that legislatures may change models as they see fit. We do not have the experience here of having one ombudsman.