Ms Helen Hall:

Just to give members an idea, the measuring of performance will be a work in progress and a journey for a number of years. As Ms Feehily mentioned, we started with a collaborative process. I will give a practical example. In last year's policing plan the objective in the Garda Commissioner's plan was to make victims central to the service provided. One of the measures required a consistent and professional service to be provided for all victims of crime and reduced re-victimisation. We were trying to get something that would be more measurable into this year's plan. This year, therefore, the action is to provide a professional service, but we are looking for very specific targets. Targets represent the place to start. In future years we will be examining proxies for performance and enhancing it in a qualitative way. An example we hope to see in the 2017 plan is a measure stipulating that for a minimum of X percentage of incidents an investigating officer must be assigned. The percentages will be filled in later. A minimum of X per cent of investigation deadlines are to met. The level of victim satisfaction is to be increased and maintained at a minimum of 60% in the public attitude survey. There are references to improved detection rates in key areas such as assaults, including sexual assaults. As one can see, it is much more specific. We hope that when we are speaking to the Commissioner at meetings, the performance management system will be the basis for conversations on performance in 2017.