David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is always worth the wait to come into this committee. I welcome the Garda Commissioner and his team. I join in the strong condemnations made by the Chairman and Deputy Jack Chambers in respect of last night's incident. I hope people will come forward if they have information and that the perpetrators of the crime will be brought to justice very quickly.

I thank the Garda Commissioner for his work over the past year. It is his first anniversary, and on that anniversary we have an opportunity to talk about the changes he hopes to make to the structures of An Garda Síochána and then operationally how they will play out across the State. I genuinely wish him well in that work. Like any strategy, when one breaks eggs to make an omelette, some people will be upset about the eggs broken. There will be local reaction to some of the changes. In that context - and I am in favour of reform to bring about better and more effective policing - have the changes that have been made been underpinned in any way by the national planning framework?