Mr. Robert K. Olson:

We have been informed that a lot of them are not being implemented for reasons of financial need. Frankly, if I were to look at this in a holistic manner, one of the reasons for many of the issues raised here is that the Garda Síochána does not have the electronic and other tools it needs to have information in real time to make good decisions operationally on what it is doing. It is clear from our fixed charge penalty system that it is disjointed and singular and nobody knows everything and to get the information one has to go down to the individual stations.

Some poor sergeant or garda must open a book and retrieve whatever information was asked for. This has to be done at 96 different district stations, and then it goes up to the divisions and the regions and finds its way to headquarters. Perhaps we get it in six months or a year.