Mr. Bob Collins:

I made a point about the existence of the board. That is not the only issue that concerns the authority and where it saw a shifting back from the position established just over six years ago. A range of responsibilities returned to the Minister. We were very pleased to see the setting of the priorities that was going to be with the Minister in the initial draft heads is now going to be with the new authority, as it is with the current authority. It is a very positive development and we welcomed it. The setting of those priorities is done in close consultation with the Garda Commissioner, as the law requires, and it always has been. There has not been an instance, either in the setting of priorities or the approval of the policing plan, where there has been a significant difference between the authority and the Garda Commissioner.

The return to the Garda Síochána family, as it were, which includes the new board and which will adopt the services plan or the policing plan, as it is called, is a step backwards. The authority has always been strongly of the view that the policing plan must be the Garda Commissioner's plan and he or she must own it. The entire organisation must own it. The fact that the authority approves it currently is a really significant element because the authority brings to that process all its engagements across the community, including outreach. There is very significant evidence, for example, during the past 18 or 20 months of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 15 reports that the authority has submitted to the Minister on the policing of that. There have been very positive responses from the public to the authority on the quality of that policing service. That element runs the risk of being absent from the shaping of the new services plan.

As I am on the topic of the services plan, there is a provision in it that merits further serious consideration. It relates to the final subhead in the part, which indicates the services plan must align with the policy of the Government or of any Minister of the Government and his or her views on policing. It is difficult to understand that and it has the potential to be problematic for the independence of any Garda Commissioner in setting the policing plan.

To get back to the point, it is proposed the board will adopt that plan but it is not clear what exactly is the difference between "adopt", "approve", "accept" or whatever it may be. The appointments are a critical matter. Moving the appointments from the Garda Síochána to the independent oversight body was not an invasion of the executive management space of the Garda Commissioner because the Garda Commissioner had the capacity, either personally or through a representative, to be involved with every selection process that was undertaken. The current Garda Commissioner has been involved with the selection of deputy and assistant commissioners, as well as chief superintendents. That is really positive.

The critical point is that there was a serious reservation within the organisation about the appropriateness of recruitment policies and the independence of recruitment practices. That was reflected very significantly in the culture. The response to the authority over the past four or five years in which it has had this responsibility is welcome for the fact this external body was engaged. There is a virtue in having the authority as opposed to the Public Appointments Service involved. My comments are not in the slightest sense to cast any aspersions or doubts on the professionalism of that important agency. The authority, by virtue of its various responsibilities, has access to understanding the information because of its statutory entitlements and powers that would not be readily available to any other agency involved with the appointments process. That really shifts the balance towards the Garda Síochána as an entity.

This is not about any individual Garda Commissioner or officer, and I have no doubt the people in question know that. This is about the structural relationships between the policing service as an entity and whatever oversight body exists. We all know there will be an oversight body. The Garda Commissioner knows this from his previous experience in another jurisdiction of an oversight body with a far more significant capacity that this authority. The virtue and value of that has been appreciated by the chief constables of the Policing Service of Northern Ireland.