Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring:

Under the original Acts, there was a six-month time limit. That has been extended to 12 months. We have the capacity, in a given case, to decide to extend the limit. For smaller cases, that makes sense. We should have some parameters. We need to make sure that people know in that 12 month period that GSOC exists and that they can come to us. On the larger issues, if it is a criminal matter, there should not be any time limit. There is no time limit with regard to criminal offences so why should we have any time limit in that regard? We would certainly look at a complaint and if it was of a criminal nature, we would have to have regard to the fact that a man or woman could go into a Garda station in the morning and make a complaint of an alleged offence which occurred some ten, 15 or 20 years ago. In some cases we have seen them go as far back as 40 or 50 years ago. The problem can be in the actual effective investigation. We may open an investigation but whether we can effectively investigate it can be dependent on who is available, what the information is and whether we get people willing to come forward.