Ms Shirley Comerford:

To explain briefly, our role in the new regulations was in the administration of a new process whereby we would normally handle all of the public recruitment. We do not usually get involved in internal promotions. We have had ongoing discussions with An Garda Síochána. On foot of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland’s position, there was a sense that we needed to look at the promotion process more so than the eligibility piece. We went in and worked with An Garda Síochána to do an assessment of the competencies required for the role of modern policing. We designed a process for this and supported the organisation by running its internal promotion processes for it. The issue of eligibility was not part of that discussion.