Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a few more questions to ask, but perhaps I might get to them later. There must have been a cultural trigger for these actions and the representatives must provide some idea for the committee as to why they happened. It is not acceptable simply to wait for a factual understanding. They should give us, as senior members of the Garda, as the ones who accept responsibility collectively, as they stated, some idea as to why this happened.

I want to track back. Again, I am interested in the period from 2006 to 2009. There are a number of reasons one could have had a cultural trigger. One was there would have been an incentive. There can be an incentive for a member of any organisation to do better or perhaps gain credit within the system in terms of promotion. That is one question. Do the representatives believe any Garda member anywhere tried to manipulate data to drive potential promotional opportunities?

I refer to the bonus-related payments system in place from 2006 until 2010. We know that senior officials in the Civil Service and the wider public service were paid bonuses based on particular outcomes driven by human resource management within the context of whatever system in which they were operating. We know that a bonus system was in place for members of the force from assistant commissioner level up. What were the performance-related targets at the time when bonuses were paid and could this have been the trigger for driving data upwards in the force? Was that the trigger that drove a cultural norm within the force to maximise data outcomes? We know that bonuses were paid to most senior officers in An Garda Síochána. At the time the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, AGSI, criticised the bonus culture across the senior sections of the Civil Service and the wider public service, but we know that senior officers in the Garda also received bonuses. What I want to know specifically is whether data for traffic, alcohol testing and checkpoints were potentially linked with bonuses? In a particular division if one Garda member had a better outcome in the data submitted as against his or her colleagues, was there a difference in the bonuses paid? Were there performance-related targets linked with bonuses which we know were paid to senior officers in the force at the time. Could this have been the cultural trigger?