Mr. Liam Herrick:

I am mindful that Senator Ruane had questions for other witnesses also. On the data point, I am very encouraged by what Ms Mulkerrins has said about the openness in An Garda Síochána in terms of the wider collection of this aggregated data. It has been one of the positive features of policing under Covid, that An Garda Síochána and the Policing Authority have produced high-quality and detailed data on a regular basis, which is a new level of transparency that we had never seen before in policing in Ireland.

We have a concern with the increasing use of fixed penalty notices, especially with recent protests that were small, socially distanced and in compliance with public health guidelines. People are being imposed with fixed penalty points for attending or organising those events. There were a lot of other high-profile public events, however, where people were not subjected to that. This will feed a public distrust in the even-handed approach.