Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am just saying a telephone call should not be seen as an official channel. The process should be more formal than that, particularly for an authority, and removed in terms of the need for regulatory oversight. I know that this is a procedural aspect, but when the authority will not meet people who wish to present matters to it, it should provide for the same distance and level of governance for those whom it regulates. That is why there should be analysis and rigour in the formal public session or it should be done by way of correspondence. There is a need to step back from telephone contact. When those who were making the disclosures received the information from whoever it was in management, they felt a discussion was ongoing informally about what they were presenting to the Policing Authority. They felt undermined and that their evidence was not being valued to the degree it should have been. That is the issue of perception and we need to ensure it will not recur.