Ms Sin?ad Gibney:

To clarify our funding situation, we have our own allocated Vote. This means IHREC is accountable to the Houses of the Oireachtas. All three of our organisations are also governed by the UN Paris principles for national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights, which assert that it is up to institutions to effectively hold the State to account on human rights and equality issues. We must be independent and we must be effectively resourced. This is an important element and a characteristic of our organisation is that we have the independence of our own funding Vote and control over our own budget. We received a budget increase last year and we will be seeking continued budget increases in coming years, in line with the fact that our mandate is increasingly complex and we are taking on new responsibilities as an organisation. I just wished to convey the clear picture in this regard.

I welcome Deputy Brendan Smith's comments. Coming back to the ETA scheme and the racial profiling issue in this regard, I think he is correct about the chilling effect. The worry people have now regarding the potential for being checked is a concerning issue. As all three of us told the committee, we hear anecdotally about this happening. If anyone thinks they may have a case or anything in this vein, I ask them to approach our organisations to help us to understand that experience. If, for example, the Deputy's constituents have any negative experiences, we will do our best to work on their behalf. Perhaps my colleagues might like to comment further.