Mr. Drew Harris:

I would set that in the context of the many other means by which direction and control of An Garda Síochána could, in effect, be impinged upon. We have the policing priorities, the security priorities determined by the Minister, the approval of the strategic plan, the annual plan and then the other plans that flow on from that. Furthermore, I am accountable to the Garda board for my performance and then also accountable to the new authority for the performance of the organisation. In respect of head 30, this is issuing a directive to the Commissioner with the consent of Government but that must be a lawful directive and one that obviously meets our obligations on human rights compliance. If that was not the case, obviously I would make comment in that respect. There just seems to be an awful lot of influence being brought to bear. One of the concerns is the amount of influence being brought to bear in terms of three-year, one-year and then more extraordinary matters in terms of my direction and control of the organisation.