Mr. Bob Collins:

External, independent, strong, statutorily supported and public are the crucial elements in accountability. Some of those elements are there at the moment and some could be stronger. Some of those I believe run the risk of being somewhat weakened in the new arrangements. Because of the establishment of a Garda board, the Commissioner is undoubtedly going to have to engage with the board and answer its questions and indeed engage with its issues. It seems unreasonable that a commissioner would do it twice. There is a risk therefore that this would diminish the extent to which those engagements would be properly and fully held with the Policing Authority. There is a risk that Garda board, with its fiduciary responsibilities to the organisation, will want to protect jealously its own area of statutory responsibility, and there may be an emerging reluctance to engage with the kind of increasing openness that has been evident from An Garda Síochána, with some notable exceptions, over the past five to six years.