Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The natural question following on from that is whether Mr. Smyth is of the view that a structure needs to be put in place to enable inspectors to provide feedback centrally on issues such as the need for additional powers and that this could then be communicated to legislators in order that we do not find out about these issues by watching episodes of "RTE Investigates". Such a structure exists in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. The latter's inspectorate has been well-established for many years. I am not making any comparison between children and animals. The only comparison I make is in terms of the structure. To the best of my knowledge, the veterinary inspectors feed information to a central policy making body in the Department, which then seeks more powers if there is gap in the existing powers.