Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will do my best. I will cut half of my questions and will not overlap. I thank the witnesses for their attendance. They are the two best witnesses I have seen at a committee in my time flitting in and out of here over the past decade. I have seen all of their evidence, having watched the beginning in my office and been in attendance for the second half. I am a member of the Committee of Public Accounts and so cannot also be a member of this committee but I am a regular guest, and I thank the Chair in that regard. The courage shown by the witnesses in the face of great difficulty is exemplary, while the knowledge, clarity and professionalism they have brought to giving their evidence is the best I have seen. In terms of their knowledge of the subject matter, they have recorded and documented everything to a very high level and gone through everything in an incredibly impressive manner.

I will ask these questions quickly. In a response to a question from Deputy Wallace earlier, I felt like giving Ms West a round of applause when she spoke about the tension between expertise and rank structure. That summed up the situation we have all seen in An Garda Síochána for some time. With great clarity, Ms West spoke about ethics, truth and conviction and that she had to stand by what she was doing for the past 15 months. Has the culture changed in any way in recent months? When Ms West was asked earlier, she was correct not to discuss individuals because this is not personal, but she obviously feels let down. That is my first question about the culture. Has anything changed in recent months?

Ms West spoke earlier about the pressures and other matters. I was very much taken by the way Ms West stated how she personally had a duty of care to Ms Galligan. The second part of my question in relation to culture is as follows. Did Ms West's superiors from a reporting point of view maintain their duty of care to her professionally in her workplace?