Mr. Mark Toland:

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary does fulfil a similar function to ours. It makes recommendations but the police services are obliged to implement those recommendations.

We looked at the situation Northern Ireland. There is a board but, obviously, there is a political element to that.

Interestingly in Scotland, where there is an inspectorate and a policing authority, the inspectorate can actually inspect the policing authority in respect of some of its functions, but it has not yet used that power.

There have been discussions in Ireland on whether there should be a criminal justice inspectorate to examine issues concerning the Probation Service, prisons and policing and, potentially, some of the core issues. These discussions have taken place and we have been involved in them. We see merit in broadening the criminal justice aspect to take in sectors other than just the police. An Garda Síochána is a really important aspect and we would not like to lose the inspectorate's focus on policing in Ireland.