Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Can Mr. Carroll indicate how many complaints have been made by the Department to An Garda Síochána against farmers?

A second matter that continues to puzzle me is internal investigations. As far as I am concerned, they satisfy nobody and serve no purpose because the people who believe they have been treated wrongly will ask what an internal investigation would reveal anyway. I must note the practices I saw when, for example, tendering for ferryboats was being done. Outside process auditors were brought in when a complaint I did not think would stand up was made to me about Údarás na Gaeltachta. The Department issued an instruction that an external auditing company be brought in to go through everything, because I believed that were an internal investigation to be carried out, the person concerned would respond by stating that the glove is going to defend the glove. How many times over the past 20 years has one heard about internal investigations in this State? They do not satisfy anybody, and in lots of cases it was only on foot of an external investigation that one got the truth. While I am not pre-empting what is the truth, my point is this is a bad process. Moreover, it appears to be getting stronger within Departments, because internal investigations also were seen in respect of penalty points, although the only thing the public will accept is an external investigation. I asked a question earlier, and obviously it would not be an issue for the Department to decide, as it would be the Minister who decides on an external investigation. However, I am interested in Mr. Carroll's views on an investigation, once and for all, into those cases in which farmers had serious complaints and the courts vindicated them. Whereas Deputy Penrose stated that the learned judge was not exactly praising the Department, would Mr. Carroll not think it would clear the air considerably if an external investigation into the issue was held? If that vindicated the Department, everyone would then be obliged to accept it.