Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank each of our commissioners and Ms Healy for being here with us today. They are under a great deal of pressure and it is very important to come before the committee and explain the work. I have certainly learned a great deal today. I also wish to put on record my thanks to members of An Garda Síochána who go above and beyond every day of the week, in particular those who did Trojan work during Covid-19.

Before I became a Deputy, I worked at senior level in a multinational organisation so I am very familiar with putting together business cases for additional headcounts and business continuity planning. I am impressed by the ability of GSOC, as an organisation, to put forward the business case for an increase in headcount. I was quite struck to see in the briefing documentation that in 2018, the organisation grew by 30% which is quite an achievement, both from the perspective of being able to put forward that case to get that funding but also from a recruitment and human resources perspective to be able to make it work in such a short space of time.

I note from Mr. Justice MacCabe’s contribution that he mentioned that 60 of the workforce of 123 are investigators. I was struck by the fact that that is approximately 50%. As the team grew, how did GSOC prioritise in terms of investigators versus administration staff and other personnel? Is that 50:50 balance the sweet spot?

In regard to business continuity planning, Covid-19 was the ultimate test for every organisation in the country.

All of the members provide essential services, but in many cases they may have had to work from home, which was a big transition. I know there were some teething issues for everybody, but I would like to learn a little more about the phone line issue that was mentioned and whether there were any repercussions.

I am also curious about the categorisation of cases, and there was very interesting information in the briefing document on the categorisation of cases by source. Is there any categorisation that happens by complexity, with category A, B or C indicating higher workloads, for example, and cases that are likely to take longer? Could the committee have visibility of that because it would help in our role as advocates? As new Bills are introduced and additional responsibilities, as the witnesses indicate, are put on the organisation, additional resources would need to come along with that.

With regard to the new policing security and community safety Bill, has there been any preliminary work to pre-empt changes that will happen within the organisation as a result of the change management, tendering for new information and communications technology or anything like that? It might help future-proof the process ahead of schedule, if that is possible. Those are my questions. They take in the 50-50 balance within the workforce, the small query around phone lines, the categorisation of work cases and any pre-emptive work the organisation is doing or perhaps could be doing to future-proof the ombudsman's office.