Ms Josephine Feehily:

There is a lot of engagement. The Chairman asked about targets.

I will ask Ms Hall to give an example that might crystallise the difference between the policing plan of last year and the one we foresee. That might give members a sense of what we are using as targets because they are not all hard numbers. We are also hoping to identify in the plan how the targets will be measured.

To get back to the question, some of the measures are numbers. Some will come from better technology that will enable us to interrogate efficiency. However, one of the biggest measures is a public attitude survey the Garda has carried out and published. It contains a very rich body of information and was independently conducted. We made a proposal recently that we might joint-fund that piece of work because we want to broaden and deepen it. We do not see value in two separate agencies asking the public asking what it thinks of the performance. Properly carried out public attitude surveys such as the current one demonstrate a high level of public trust in the abstract and also public confidence in the Garda. However, since the sample size may not be as good as it should be, the granularity evident at the level of victims may not be rich enough to give us the answers. Therefore, we would like to have more input from victims' and community groups through a deeper survey system. It is absolutely correct to state measures are not all hard numbers.

On the final question about awareness, the first thing we had to do was draft a leaflet setting out what we, GSOC does and the Garda Inspectorate did. This is because so much of our correspondence is misdirected. To the extent that there is strong awareness, it tends to be among groups of people who already have a strong awareness of the policing realm and, perhaps, people who are coming to us after having already engaged with other parts of it. Sometimes, other than saying this will inform our development of thematic oversight, we do not have a function that can help them. On an individual basis, it largely rests with GSOC. The Chairman was correct in that regard. It is partly what I meant when I talked in my opening remarks about the authority becoming established in the public mind.

I was asked about making space for us and relationships. I described it last year as having to elbow our way into the relationships that had been established for over 100 years and that had their own language, working norms and understandings. The Deputy is absolutely right. We have to make that space and grow it over time.