Mr. Ian Drennan:

That is correct. When I took up the position, I undertook an assessment of the ODCE's then capabilities. I identified that we had a significant deficiency in accounting expertise, by which I mean we only had two, one of whom was coming relatively close to retirement. We also had no internal digital forensics capability whatsoever and so were entirely reliant on third-party providers. By digital forensics, I mean when one seizes a device, that one has the ability to image it in an evidentially integral way and so on. As a result of that exercise I referred to, I prepared a document for the Department and sought a significant increase in our resources in those areas. All of that was forthcoming and successive Ministers and their officials have been supportive of our endeavours to further professionalise the organisation and make it more effective at what it does.

We now have an approved core of seven accountants from a variety of backgrounds such as enforcement, the private sector, banking, the public sector, policing and so on. We have a digital forensic accountant who is a leading expert in that field. We have a state-of-the-art digital forensics laboratory, which is bar none in terms of what we can do in it. There has been some very significant investment in the organisation. That said, these are large investigations. As I said earlier in response to Deputy O'Reilly, of course if one has more, one can do more. As I said at the committee previously, my personal philosophy is not about us needing more and more; it is about getting the right people. The right resources are much more important than more resources. It must, however, be balanced. As Deputy O'Reilly referred to, we have outlined in the submission that for reasons associated with the legal change in the structure of the organisation and the vision that has been articulated for the organisation, we will undoubtedly need some extra people. We have been very measured in trying to identify that. We clearly need additional resourcing in the area of digital forensics and legal, for some of the reasons that were outlined earlier.

If I may, I will kill two birds with one stone because it occurs to me that I did not answer one of Deputy Bruton's questions on gardaí. We reach pinch points at any given time and one cannot resource an organisation on the basis that it will always be in surge. One tries to staff and structure an organisation such that one can deal with the day-to-day activities and have a certain amount of redundancy built in so that when surges happen, the organisation can deal with them. Clearly, there are limits to that and it is not credible to go to a Minister or to anybody else looking for resources that one cannot justify on a day-to-day basis. That is a delicate balancing act. An organisation does reach pinch points from time to time. Relatively recently we identified a pinch point with the volume of witness statements that need to be taken. I communicated with the Garda Commissioner and asked him to deploy some additional detective gardaí with us for a certain period on a temporary basis. I am glad he indicated that not only would he do this but that they would be deployed in the very near future. Those pinch points arise from time to time and they have been reflected in the submission. Clearly, one of the areas we could certainly benefit from is additional members of An Garda Síochána, given that they are very important in what we do, as the committee touched upon earlier.

Deputy Bruton asked if we needed any legislative provisions to reflect our important relationship with An Garda Síochána. The short answer to that is "No", but there are some administrative level issues that could be dealt with by way of a memorandum of understanding, MOU, for example, between the new authority and the Commissioner. I have written to the Commissioner in anticipation of the corporate enforcement authority being set up, with a view to try to put in place an MOU that would formalise certain of those issues to make things more efficient and effective in the future. I hope this answers the Senator's questions and addresses Deputy Bruton's earlier question.