Mr. Drew Harris:

I am grateful for the opportunity to respond to An Coimisinéir Teanga's reports and for the opportunity to set out the response of An Garda Síochána in respect of our legislative and overall responsibility to provide a policing service which is bilingual and which meets the needs of Irish society. In particular I am struck by a remark in An Coimisinéir Teanga's correspondence with me and which is a public remark. His remark was to the effect that if a member of the public deals with a member of An Garda Síochána, there can be an imbalance in power in that relationship and that if they wish to converse in Irish and the member of An Garda Síochána can only converse in English, that is putting them at a disadvantage right from the start and in effect a power imbalance is created.

From our inception, respect towards the Irish language and the provision of services in the Gaeltacht has been in legislation on An Garda Síochána. We accept the responsibility we are given in that regard. I will turn to Ms Ní Cheallaigh to read out our opening statement in full.