Mr. Brian Purcell:

I explained in detail to Senator Katherine Zappone that in a situation where the Commissioner had reported on something and was followed by an assistant Commissioner and a deputy Commissioner, he endorsed that it had been investigated properly. There is then a situation where it goes to the Director of Public Prosecutions who says no prosecutions are warranted. One is assured by the knowledge that it also went to GSOC and that it had the opportunity to consider whether it felt further action was warranted in the circumstances. Bearing in mind what I said about the relationship between the Secretary General and the Commissioner or the Minister and the Commissioner, it is built on a level of trust. As I said in my opening remarks, it is a trust that has been built up over decades and a relationship that was built during a period when there was a real threat to the security of the State. There was necessarily a close relationship which, as I said, did not happen during the term of one single officeholder. That was how it had developed over a long period. When one has this, what I am saying is that the response was reasonable. I do not know, with the benefit of hindsight, whether we would do the same thing again. Again, a lot of boils down to the level of trust. However, I go back to what I said. The programme of reform will ensure this will not happen again because if one has a situation where the remit of GSOC is extended to cover complaints made by gardaí - it was only in particular circumstances that it could do so - with the enactment of the Protected Disclosures Bill 2013 which will establish GSOC as the authority that will deal with Garda whistleblowers, it will not arise again. My own belief is that the most far-reaching reform that will be introduced in the packages the Minister is driving forward is the establishment of an independent policing authority that will change on a permanent basis the relationship between the Garda Commissioner and gardaí and the Department and-or the Minister.