Mr. Mark Toland:

We are very grateful that the committee made it a recommendation. It would enhance our abilities and mean that we would not have to make appointments to carry out visits. We do not get the impression that our visits are always stage managed, but it is important to be able to go in and carry out real-time checks in certain areas. If we were to get involved in inspecting places of detention, it would be a prerequisite. One has to be able to turn up unannounced in that context. In a response in Parliament the Minister has said he does not think his approval is required every time we want to make a visit. It may just be the way it has been written, but to us, it seems impracticable that every time we wanted to make a visit, we would need ministerial approval which might be required if it was an issue of State security. It might be something that would need to be considered if we were to go into an area to inspect very sensitive material. However, we do not think we should need to seek ministerial approval in general before we visit a Garda division or region or most national units. I am not sure it was intended to be drafted in that way, but that is very much how we have interpreted the Private Members' Bill.