Mr. Mark Toland:

We have not been officially engaged. We are about to go to Northern Ireland to meet our counterparts to talk about how we will work together in the future and what the implications are. This is one of the items on the agenda for discussion. We are very keen to do work with our counterparts. When they do an inspection they quite often come to the South to look at issues here, and we go to the North, because it is the nearest border. There is good learning to be had in both jurisdictions. We want to maintain that relationship. We are happy to give our professional advice. One of the things the Garda Síochána Inspectorate can do is provide advice and we should do it more often for the Policing Authority. Recently the Minister asked us to look at entry levels and in this case we are giving advice to the Minister rather than an inspection. We believe that our policing skills add value. We also look for international best practice. If a measure works very well somewhere else it might be possible to transfer to these shores and be implemented here.