Ms Pauline Shields:

The OPCAT does not necessarily require a single organisation inspecting all places of detention. As the Deputy pointed out, they include healthcare settings as well as places of detention operated by police or prison services. A model that appears to work quite well is the one involving an overarching co-ordinating body for the national preventive mechanism and then a number of other organisations which inspect within their areas of expertise. Coming at it from that perspective, the inspectorate has the independence, knowledge and experience to examine places of detention where gardaí detain individuals. That would then feed into a co-ordinating body which would, in turn, report through official channels on the operation of the protocol in Ireland.