Mr. Mark Toland:

Unlike the Policing Authority, we can look at all functions of An Garda Síochána. The Policing Authority cannot look at issues around State security or some of those more sensitive issues. We can look at every area of policing and we are slightly different.

On inspections, the much of what I have done in the inspectorate has involved external agencies and other Departments. We have started to look at issues because policing is about more than merely what the Garda Síochána can do. It is about the courts. It is about the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. In the most recent report, we look at Tusla. We have gone far beyond the police service.

In other jurisdictions, they are all very different. The UK now has moved to police and crime commissioners rather than a policing authority, but in England and Wales, they have a completely separate policing inspectorate because they do not want to lose the focus on policing. We would not like to be consumed into another organisation that necessarily takes us away from policing.