Ms Josephine Feehily:

I understand that and I understand the question. It comes back to whether anybody would have told us. While we have a relationship with the audit committee, if it did not know, and it did not for quite a while, then that would have been problematic. It comes back to culture and governance in An Garda Síochána, which are topics about which the authority has already expressed concern. We are looking forward to a culture audit, which is about to be carried out, to see what it will tell us about the culture on an evidential basis. The answer is, I suppose, that I do not know. One can have all the powers in the world - and we do have a power to ask for documents in the Commissioner's possession - but if one asks for general documents, and does not know that something is there, one may never be given it. Therefore, I could not give the Deputy a categorical assurance that we would have spotted it either.