Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief as well, Chair. I express my sympathies to the Fox family and the members of An Garda Síochána on the death of Detective Superintendent Colm Fox.

There is a limited amount I am going to go into here because a lot has been gone through, in some very good detail, by my colleagues. Some of what I have to say are just observations, having listened to the debate today. I must stress that my following observation gives me absolutely no pleasure.

Mr. Finn's concluding remarks of his opening statement reads:

I fully accept Chair that the review process could have been quicker. ...

Given the seriousness of the crimes ...

Any issues identified ...

In conclusion Chair ...

I can assure you Chair that An Garda Síochána has taken this matter very seriously and will continue to do so.

That could almost be said on every occasion. Mr. Finn could lift that text as a block and drop it into almost every opening remarks An Garda Síochána has had to make to this committee since Mr. Finn began to appear before it in the time I have been a member of it. That speaks volumes as to how disappointing it is in terms of where we are at. There have been so many incidents, questions and investigations all following a very similar pattern that it takes longer, it takes time, there is a great seriousness to the matter and that they cannot supply us with the information. It says something about the whole process in which we as a committee are having to engage in dealing with some issues.

I do not want to be flippant about this, and "flippant might be the wrong word to use, but I have a problem with the 20-year old IT system. What part of the 20-year old IT system told senior management in An Garda Síochána not to consult Dr. Singh regarding the report? Which bit of the IT system did that?