Mr. Drew Harris:

Public complaints are referred to my office. Chief superintendents, but more likely superintendents, then undertake those investigations. In any one year, several hundred complaints by members of the public can be given to An Garda Síochána to investigate. There was a hiatus in investigations for a period of almost seven months when superintendents and chief superintendents, as part of a dispute, refused to undertake further investigations or receive new matters. That action has finished and superintendents and chief superintendents are catching up on that work, but that action was not the only one they took. They retreated from other areas of their work as well.