Ms Josephine Feehily:

I would make two points. The Deputy said the process was a little early but it is also an opportunity. We are at a formation stage. The Chairman indicated that the committee plans to produce a report and recommendations, so suggestions are welcome. Like the previous committee to which Senator Conway referred, we also visited Northern Ireland and Scotland. There are nuanced differences both in the legal and governance infrastructures. We are all different and we have things to learn from each other. That is why I was grateful to get in early in the committee's work programme. There are advantages in us having an opportunity to hear the members' views also as we evolve our work methods.

All I can say on the collaboration question is that I hear the Deputy. I assure him we are extraordinarily mindful of the risk of regulatory capture. We made a judgment. It may not be necessary to have a collaborative process every year. This is something for which we needed to get a better plan. In the literature about policing oversight, the phrase used is "critical friend". There is an element, and we have a statutory role also, of supporting policing and supporting the gardaí. Creating a dynamic that is always a case of "you do it and we will knock it" is not necessarily the best form for a fledgling oversight body. We judged that to get this performance framework established better, we should give them a better understanding of the kind of plan we would want before us for approval.

I must take slight issue with the Deputy on another matter. He probably did not mean it but I would not want it to be left hanging. If, in future, somebody can say that the genesis of an idea came from the Policing Authority, that is almost inevitable because everything will not be in the policing plan. For example, as I mentioned to Deputy Daly, we will be completing a review shortly of the protected disclosures policy and we will say that "X" might be considered. We will always be contributing ideas and recommendations and if one of them turns out not to be adequate, we have to be held to account but I do not believe we will ever not be contributing ideas. We would not be doing the full scope in terms of the critical friend but also the power of oversight, and Deputy O'Callaghan spoke about our contribution to formation, moulding and assisting the force, unless we are putting ideas before Garda management and the Department. In case that comment was left hanging, I want to make clear that there will always be ideas. In five years' time, someone will say he or she would not have done something only for the authority. That is life.

The Deputy made a point about my remarks on recruitment and command structure. Most public bodies are bureaucracies. They have a degree of command structure and grading systems. If we, as a nation, want to have an opportunity to influence the culture of the Garda Síochána, as called for in many reports, not just commissions of investigation but the inspectorate report and so on, one way of influencing culture, which is what I believe was Deputy O'Callaghan's point, is to let in fresh thinking. If the only way in the door is Templemore, and the only way up is step by step, that creates a cultural restriction. That is why we believe the inspectorate examining the other ways in is a positive move. It is not unusual in other police services. For example, in other police services a basic grade police officer could apply by way of an open competition and become superintendent. That is not unheard of, and it is not unheard of to move around police services and bring a richness of ideas. We have to be open. I am not sure that even if we go this route, or if the regulations allow us to go this route, the result might not necessarily be that the experience people gain at each level will make them fit to be the most likely promotees. Opening up the process addresses an ambition piece that we need to look after in terms of junior people and an opportunity for ideas to allow people move quicker through the organisation. The extent to which the ambitions I outlined will come to pass will depend on regulations.