Mr. Mark Toland:

I cannot comment on an individual case around the disclosure because I do not have the personal details. We looked at the creation of a serious and organised crime unit. We have gone far further than the Commissioner has currently gone and recommended that bureau fraud investigation become part of that unit. Currently, it is drugs and organised crime, and fraud is a separate unit. We did quite a piece of work in the Crime Investigation report. We followed it up in the Changing Policing in Ireland report, and we are recommending a much different unit. We need to follow the criminal now, and not the crime. It is about having individual units that look at drugs, organised crime, prostitution and fraud. These people go across many different crimes and what we have recommended is the creation of a much more flexible unit that is able to follow the criminal as they go through the crime.

Information sharing has come up in every inspection we have conducted. The Data Protection Act is often given to us as a blocker. When we ask for specific examples, some of the examples we get are complex, and we understand why that is an issue. What we found is an absence of signed up, information sharing protocols with organisations that allow organisations to share information based on a particular crime. We are currently looking at child sexual abuse, a very serious crime, and the management of sex offenders. Again, the Data Protection Act is given as a blocker, and what we are trying to do is come up with solutions to help the Garda Síochána, and partner agencies, have the confidence to share information when it is appropriate. Where children are concerned, it is much easier because it is in the best interests of the child. It becomes far more complex when we are looking at fraud cases and other serious crime cases.