Mr. Mark Toland:

I will speak first about implementation and some of the examples. On many occasions, going back seven years, we have made recommendations concerning sergeants and inspectors on duty on the front line, in operational units and in filling the gaps. That is a crucial gap in the organisation and we have constantly raised it as an issue. The O'Higgins report covers the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 and crimes when there was no supervisor on duty. Sometimes one will have inexperienced gardaí investigating crimes; it is necessary, therefore, to have a supervisor with them to lead, direct and train them. Many youngsters coming out of the college in Templemore at the time in question did not have a sergeant to train, look after and supervise them. That is a really important part of a young officer's career and it was a significant gap.

Civilianisation dates back nearly 20 years. The thrust of our last report was to try to get police officers working on tasks and roles in which their skills would be used. Twenty years ago there was a Government-sponsored report on civilianisation. It stated that every time a civilian member was brought in, there should be one police officer going out to perform a police officer's role, but that has not happened. Civilianisation has been woefully slow. There are many highly trained, experienced gardaí engaged in administrative roles and roles that do not require police skills. One might need technical skills, but it is a waste.

That is because it is expensive to train them and it takes a long time. One then puts them into a role that a professionally trained member of support staff could do. Other organisations have tried to ensure that when they recruit a support staff member, they release a police officer for the front line. Those are two where, actually, we would have seen more police officers on the front line and more sergeants and inspectors available to supervise them properly.