Mr. Dónall Ó Cualáin:

Yes. I know that the Policing Authority has met the committee and given an account of its busy work programme. The authority has honed in on a number of areas it was statutorily obliged to look at. The first was a strategy statement for An Garda Síochána and that has been prepared. We have been meeting the authority on a weekly basis, at committee level or whatever, to ensure we get the best possible output from that particular investment of time. We have agreed a strategy statement that will bring us to the end of 2018. Out of the strategy statement will come our policing plans for the same period. We are at an advanced stage, with the authority, in agreeing what the policing plan will look like for 2017.

Deputy Brophy mentioned civilianisation. It forms a big chunk of the work carried out by the Policing Authority. My colleague, Mr. Joe Nugent, has been in regular contact with the authority to ensure civilianisation happens as quickly as possible, as well as with other relevant Departments. We are very happy to be in this busy space because we have got a lot of ideas. There has been a challenging of the assumptions, as the Commissioner called it a while ago, as to how we do our work. We have had a very useful nine months. The policing plan will be approved soon and it will show what we hope to achieve over the next 12 months. It will give the authority a template and framework to measure our performance against what we hope to achieve.