Baroness Nuala O'Loan:

Yes. On the issue of access to personal premises, that is, to the homes of serving guards, to their cars, caravans or whatever it is, I am not fully experienced in criminal law here but that would be dealt with in the process of criminal investigation and I would expect the normal warrant process to apply to that. Consequently, that would be possible, were one conducting a criminal investigation. Very often before that, however, there is a question about whether material may or may not be held in a police station or a Garda station. My experience has been that very often, there is material that may well be useful to an investigation, which is kept in lockers or desks or even, in the North anyway, in the roof spaces of stations. The problem as I perceive it at present is that the legislation provides for notice to be given. In most situations, GSOC would be able to give notice that it wished to come in and look for something or to ask for something but in order to have independence, there must be a right to go and to enter. We had that right in the North and it was a necessary part of some of our investigations.