Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Many of the questions I was going to ask have probably been covered at this stage but I will touch on them to see if there is any additional information. On section 94(3) with regard to public interest investigations that GSOC is now permitted to commence without a complaint, is the commission aware of, or does it participate in the oversight of the secondary element of that process where it is reviewed by another Garda inspector which is mentioned in the GSOC report? Is there a Chinese wall within An Garda Síochána in regard to that process? Does GSOC have any oversight of that? Is it a truly independent process when it gets to that secondary stage?

In respect of the operational experience of section 102 subsections (4) (a), (5) and (7), which are also referred to in the report, that section is quite an interesting one. I would be interested in the witnesses’ view of how it operates.

Deputy Chambers touched on the resource issue. Every agency that comes before an Oireachtas committee wants more resources. That is only right and proper, given the circumstances we are emerging from. All members of the committee would be happy to fight the witnesses’ corner on that. I take on board Deputy Wallace’s point about operational funding and on specific allocations. Do the witnesses feel that GSOC is adequately resourced to deal with section 106 of the examination of practices and policies of the Garda Síochána Act and the gardaí? To what extent does GSOC’s role influence that, if at all?

I would appreciate if the commissioners could identify what section of the Act covers fines or if it is simply an internal management function because I agree entirely with the points made by my constituency colleague, Deputy Daly, that the fines the witnesses highlighted appear ridiculous. With regard to Ms Justice Ring’s point about all processes stopping when a person retires, I would be interested in her views on how the structure of the Act, or the amended Act, could be changed to cater for that, or if it would be a matter for Garda management or the Department of Justice and Equality to come up with some practical way to say the matter needs to be investigated because GSOC as an independent oversight authority believes it is of sufficient merit to continue the investigation, even if the party has retired or gone on to other things, or even passed away. Sometimes there are practices and procedures which could be improved to ensure that the allegations contained within the original complaint are not carried out in the future or not at all, if it turns out that this person was innocent, from the point of view of a practical learning experience for An Garda Síochána. I do not think it is appropriate for all investigations to simply stop and I know the witnesses would agree with me on that.