Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Commissioner and her team to the committee. I have listened to most of the discussion and I want to focus first on those people who report to the Commissioner and the chain of command that is in operation in An Garda Síochána. I know the Vice Chairman has asked whether the Commissioner has confidence in those who report to her. I want to focus on capacity and how one would expect personnel to carry out their functions and how capable individuals are in their roles within An Garda Síochána. It is very important for this committee to see if they are operating as prescribed. I find it difficult to get my head around one area in particular. I appreciate that the Commissioner is the Accounting Officer and that at the end of the day these personnel report to her through the chain of command.

In the meeting of the committee on 31 May 2017, a document was circulated which was correspondence of Mr. Michael Culhane. The reference on the top is PAC 32-R-539-B. There is a detailed memo with attachments dated 4 March 2011 where a review has been carried out into the Garda College in Templemore by the financial director of the time, Mr. Culhane, and it was also sent to the head of internal audit, Mr. Niall Kelly, whose name is on the top of the memo. I am concerned that back in 2011, a number of issues were raised in that correspondence, including the need to reduce urgently the number of bank accounts by 13. To any reasonable person without any major financial knowledge, if one talks of reducing the number of bank accounts by such a significant quantity, it would suggest there is a big operation at play. Other issues raised in the correspondence were the urgent need for new accounting procedures, all accounts to be audited, and if the financial director at that time, Mr. Culhane, had checked that the accounts were audited. For example, the bar account had not been audited at that stage. Will the Commissioner comment on this? We have the financial director giving assurances on paper to the internal auditor that things happened and they were compliant in some respects, whereas at the time he signed that memo, there was not compliance.

Is that good enough for those who occupy positions of serious responsibility?