Ms Josephine Feehily:

I am conflating in my mind because I was designate for a while. I met the Tánaiste probably a dozen times in the past year and a half. The most recent occasion was at her request. That is one I can remember straight off the top of my head.

The Tánaiste also visited us at our first meeting and she spoke openly and frankly to authority members. I am not quite sure whether that invitation came from us or from her, but it was a positive engagement between the Tánaiste and all of the authority members, not only with myself.

On the final part of the Deputy's question, nothing on which we have asked consent has been refused. Conversely, and I have a list here somewhere, the Tánaiste has asked us to do a number of things that she can formally refer to us under the Act. She formally referred the O'Higgins report to us in our oversight capacity. She formally asked us to examine the policies on whistleblowers. She formally asked us to oversee a review by the Garda Inspectorate - this goes to some of the earlier discussion - of the boundaries of Garda districts, the distribution of gardaí, deployment and rostering. That is a long piece of work that has been formally referred to us. We have been requested formally to report periodically on Changing Policing in Ireland to give our assessment of implementation, and we have been asked, as I mentioned earlier, in conjunction with the Commissioner, to develop a five-year plan for achieving the vision of the 21,000 people involved, comprising civilians, the reserve and gardaí. Therefore, we have had five formal referrals under the Act from the Tánaiste, all of which is adding to that list of priorities I mentioned, and we have sent a number of statutory documents - our strategy and the Commissioner's strategy - to the Tánaiste for her consent and we have not run into any difficulties in that regard.