Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Is it not a contradiction for the assistant Commissioner to say it did not matter who was watching given his earlier point that nobody was watching because the Garda did not have the people in place? When I pointed out that there was an assistant commissioner in place who had this specific brief in his portfolio, the assistant Commissioner stated the situation was a little disjointed. This links to the other point in his report that the PULSE bulletins issued to ordinary gardaí contained extensive and confusing information. Who designs these systems and who is responsible for them? Where is the management oversight? That is the question to which we keep returning.

I will now address mandatory alcohol testing, MAT, because I am conscious of time.

The first point in that regard is that there appears to be a writing out of the involvement of the Medical Bureau for Road Safety in this from the narrative. While it is true that there was correspondence from the RSA in 2014 relating to the breath test issue, it took over a year for the Garda to begin an investigation into the matters. Throughout that time the Garda was involved with the medical bureau, which is responsible for this equipment. The bureau is not mentioned in the narrative or the report at all, yet the acting Garda Commissioner tells us today, as if it is a great step forward, that one of the solutions is that the medical bureau has commenced a tender process for the new Drager devices which will improve recording.

Is it not the case that this process started in summer 2015 and, following detailed consultation between the medical bureau and the Garda, the Garda requested some information that it now does not want in that process? Even though the medical bureau was ready to go with new equipment over a year ago the Garda changed the specification, which will cost considerable amounts of money. As Professor Denis Cusack said in information we got under freedom of information, it will put back the entire process of procurement, approval, testing and ultimately the supply of the new devices for between 18 and 24 months. A process that management in An Garda Síochána was involved in with the medical bureau to get new devices has been kicked to touch. Despite the acting Garda Commissioner telling the committee in his introduction that a new system is coming forward as if that is great, he forgets that this was in train two years ago.