Ms Josephine Feehily:

We have designed the selection system in such a way that it is intended to be blind. We were faced with a situation - I do not think Deputies and Senators would disagree with this - whereby there were fairly significant perceptions of bias and favouritism within the system. These are documented in a report done by the Commission for Public Service Appointments. We therefore made a decision that the selection processes would be blind and that any clearances would come at the end. This is common practice in the public sector. We have very a detailed clearance procedure that is invoked before someone is appointed. As would be the case with any employer - this is not unique - that clearance procedure involves language like "taking references". We ask the Garda Commissioner certain questions, we ask GSOC certain questions, we review our own information and we ask certain questions. Then the Policing Authority must assess each candidate through the lens of the highest standards of fair procedure when we have gathered in that information. That is the clearance process we use for all candidates at the three ranks for which we are responsible for appointment, and the fair procedures test sits across everything. That is about as far as I can go in describing how we handle, in general, the individual candidates before we decide to appoint them.