Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses in this session. This is a highly complex issue. As our time is limited, I will quickly put my questions. It is important we critically examine and review these issues. Hopefully, as the Chairman and the commissioner, Ms Dixon, said, this will be the first of several conversations we will have. It would be good to invite the commissioner to come before the committee again as soon as possible to discuss some of these issues. As Ms Dixon said, there are some policy measures could that change. We have heard talk of the need for a multi-stakeholder consultation to help develop clear processes. We have also heard talk from the witnesses of an independent review of the commission, how it operates and of its procedures and investigations. Under those, we could also consider the number of commissioners. Perhaps one commissioner could split off to examine the day-to-day administrative work, one might have a slightly more specialist role and a chair could help review the policies and procedures.

Is an independent review or a multi-stakeholder engagement something the commissioner would be happy to engage in or to have set up? What is her view on having additional commissioners to help her do the job and deliver on these complex tasks?