Mr. Ronan Brady:

I draw the committee's attention to my reference to section 62 of the Garda Síochána Act, following which Deputy Farrell suggested that I said that members of the Garda should be able to talk freely to members of the press. That was not what I meant to say. My objection was to the presumption in favour of criminality on the part of contact between a member of the Garda Síochána and a member of the press without the approval of a senior officer. The presumption of criminality is the problem. Relationships with the media need to be managed, as the acting Commissioner said subsequently.

I recognise that but they need to be managed in the normal way in which they are managed in every other major social organisation and that is through disciplinary controls rather than through the automatic presumption that this is a criminal matter. What I was trying to say was that was disproportionate. I hope I have made my point clearly enough.