Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

Yes, I have seen those allegations. No unit of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is out of control or operates on its own. We are a chain of command, like every Department. I am the Secretary General. I have my Assistant Secretaries and chief veterinary officers reporting to me. These people work within a chain of command.

I set out in my opening statement how significantly misleading information has been given to the committee about the powers of the SIU and how it operates. For example, the impression is given that the SIU makes a decision to prosecute and, therefore, is in a position to, as it were, go after people, but it does not make that decision on its own. This is made clear in the Office of the Chief State Solicitor statement to the Committee of Public Accounts. In the case of prosecutions generally what happens is that a file goes to the CSSO or the Director of Public Prosecutions, in which case it is the DPP who makes the decision to prosecute. If it goes to the CSSO, counsel is appointed by the Attorney General. The counsel examines the case and recommends whether it is fit for prosecution.

It has also been suggested to the committee that the unit has special powers, far beyond what everyone else has. This is completely untrue. Those involved have the same powers as all authorised officers in the Department in respect of the legislation for which the Department is responsible, no more and no less. They are significant powers. We are protecting food safety and animal health. They include powers of search and so on. That is why I said in my statement they are similar to the Garda but not as extensive - they cannot arrest people. They cannot search a house without getting a search warrant, except in a very rare circumstance.