Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On the same point, the final paragraph on the front page of the correspondence states that in July this year there was agreement that the Department would manage overall funding within the Vote in order that GSOC could incur additional expenditure in the region of €300,000 in 2021. It states this additional funding would enable GSOC to address the immediate needs identified in the committee's letter, including a number of key investigations.

Does the additional amount address the current industrial relations issue? It is an industrial relations issue. Where is that at? Where is that to be resolved? Some of the letters that went out to which Deputy Carthy referred indicated that the Statute of Limitations would apply and that the investigation could terminate without conclusion due to the Statute of Limitations. I share the concern about answering questions. A question of mine was disallowed on 9 November? I asked the Minister for Justice had she directed the ombudsman commission in the context of examination of Garda practice, policy and procedure, to examine the memorandum of understanding that exists between GSOC and An Garda Síochána in relation to information sharing and if she was satisfied that it was functioning as intended. I was told that the Minister has no responsibility in that regard. I find it hard to accept that is the case because the Minister can intervene for a review. The Minister talks to the Garda Commissioner all the time. She must have a relationship with GSOC too. I do not hold with the idea that the Minister can be totally removed. It is quite difficult to figure this out. You cannot blame an organisation if it does not have the resources to do the job. We saw that in a freedom of information request that Mr. Ken Foxe followed up on relating to the provision of members of the Garda for some of the investigations. It took a long time for the required Garda members to be provided to GSOC to conduct investigations. The last thing anyone wants is to get to where so much time and energy has been put into something and then it does not proceed because they do not have the resources and they run into an issue with the Statute of Limitations. There is a range of concerns around what exactly that €300,000 allows to happen. We need to go back on that. Does it address the current industrial relations issues? Where do those industrial relations issues reside? Are they in the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, or in An Garda Síochána? I am not sure to whom that question should be addressed. Those are questions that are worth pursuing and there may be others after we get a response.