Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

In page 3, between lines 17 and 18, to insert the following:“Amendment of section 73 of Principal Act

3.Section 73 of the Principal Act is amended by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (3):

“(4) The Ombudsman Commission and the Garda Inspectorate may, for the purposes of an investigation, recruit a pool of independent investigators in place of designated officers.”.”.

Amendment No. 3 is straightforward. The rationale behind Deputy Mac Lochlainn's amendment is to ensure that gardaí are not always investigating other gardaí. I think this requires some consideration.

I will now comment on amendments Nos. 4 and 6. Historically, GSOC would be stopped in its tracks if we prevented it from continuing with an investigation by telling it that certain information was not available to it or would be delayed on the basis that it was an issue of national security. To ensure this information is correct and to ensure it is supervised and not used as a mechanism to hamper GSOC investigations, we would like to see the introduction of an independent adjudicator who would decide whether that information was in fact an issue of national security. It is to bring a level of independent oversight to the decision.