Baroness Nuala O'Loan:

I have published a number of reports in which I have commented on the level of co-operation I received at different times and in different investigations. Sometimes it was good and sometimes it was not. I had something which the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission does not have, which is that I had a statutory right to such information as I required. That was enormously important because when the police said to me, "You cannot have this, it is not relevant and we do not have it", I always had the right to go back and say, "My test, my choice, my search", and that was profoundly important.

The discussion should not be about whether there is an entitlement to look at material which may be relevant to the investigation because the police will not know precisely what one is investigating when one is investigating police officer wrongdoing and, therefore, it cannot judge the relevance of the material. It can judge the sensitivity of the material but that is a completely separate argument.

I was disappointed to read the recent comments at the previous session at which the Garda ombudsman commissioners gave evidence that there still seemed to be problems in this context. I would have expected that, nine years on, these matters would largely have been ironed out and that there would have been a process through which information would transmit seamlessly and in a timely fashion. It is a problem for every independent investigative organisation and it is one which can be, and should be, solved.