Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As I have said, I am under time pressure because I would like to mention a number of things. It is extraordinary that we have to go down the road of embedding a code of ethics. It is mentioned on page 19 of one of the documents that we have been furnished with that 95% of Garda personnel are to be trained in this code of ethics and all trained personnel are to have signed up to the code by the fourth quarter of the year. Where are we with that? Where are we with the Crowe Horwath report, which is mentioned on page 16? It seems that an action plan for the report was to have been agreed in the first quarter of the year and its implementation was to have commenced thereafter. Where are we with that? The report in question was commissioned by the Policing Authority on the back of what happened with the figures for mandatory intoxicant testing and the fixed penalties. Where are we with that?

I am not happy with Mr. Nugent's reassurance that work is under way on statistics. The need to be able to rely on statistics and on what is being reported in terms of crime and in terms of the other context goes to the kernel of public trust in the Garda. The Committee of Public Accounts was told at some stage - it may have been by the CSO, but I stand to be corrected - that there is absolutely no way that reassurance can be given in respect of these figures in the immediate future. Has the force arrived at a point where it can tell us at what stage in the future we will be able to rely on its figures?

My final question relates to the press office. When the new divisions are in place, will there be a single national press office or will there be a number of press officers? I welcome the emphasis on community gardaí on the ground. I despair that it has taken so many reports and so much hurt for us to go back to the idea of having a trusted police presence on the ground, which we all knew was the right thing in the first place. That is what we always wanted to do because it is what communities want. Will the press office be broken up along with everything else that is being broken up? Will there be a press office in each division?

Ní bheidh mé in ann fanacht leis an bhfreagra, ach beidh mé ag léamh an Tuairisc Oifigiúil. Tá ceist agam maidir leis an nGaeilge. What is the position on serving Gaeltacht areas and people with Irish? What progress has been made in that regard?