Ms Nóirín O'Sullivan:

The witnesses that the Senator is looking at and the senior management of An Garda Síochána have all committed to delivering on this reform programme and to working with the men and women of An Garda Síochána to deliver a modern and professional policing service that serves the people of Ireland. We are quite prepared to go out there and have courage, because it does take courage and it is not easy. The push-back we get is immense, both internally and externally. It takes courage, determination and drive, particularly at times of crisis. Deputy Wallace was asking earlier about the period since 2014. The fact is that since 2014 we have been dealing with a lot of historic reports and issues that only came to the fore at that point. We are not afraid and we have the courage to deal with those. We have the determination. The Senator asks a very important question about public confidence. What is needed is strong and visible leadership, internally and externally. That is why we make ourselves available both internally and externally. We are not just the policing service, we are the security service as well. At a time when we are dealing with a threat from organised crime, a threat from the volume of crime throughout the country and a threat from international terrorism, we have to be there to show strong, visible leadership and be in a prepared state to be able to respond, which we have done to the organised crime threat and which we will continue to do.