Mr. Hugh Hume:

There are pros and cons to the Bill, and we have been clear, open and honest about that. We welcome the increased independence the Bill will provide to the new office. We will have our own Vote and access to money. Money is a significant determinant of independence and will allow us to make important decisions, so that is positive. The Bill will require the automatic referral of all complaints to the new office, whereas at the moment, they do not all automatically come to us. They can be processed within An Garda Síochána and decisions can be made whereby they do not come to us.

That automatic referral is an important point so we can understand the level of potential wrongdoing that is ongoing within An Garda Síochána and whether any policy or procedures need to change. It also means there is true independence around investigation. Those are important aspects of the new Bill.

I should also have said that we also welcome the streamlining. The new Bill allows for a complete streamlining of complaints. At the moment, if a complaint comes in, we have to deal with it as a criminal investigation. When we finish that, we have to start again and deal with it as a discipline investigation, which adds to the timelines. The new Bill allows us to just deal with it as a single issue.

On the negative table, we have some concerns about the independence. The Senator is quite right. The new Bill places a triple lock on searches of Garda stations. We advocate for some of that. We believe there should be judicial oversight of our searches of Garda stations. We have advocated for that, and it is good. It also requires that the head of the office of the police ombudsman authorise the search, and it is appropriate that the senior person within the new body makes that determination. We have some challenge, however, in that the current Bill requires that the Garda Commissioner give concurrence to a search of Garda stations. We feel that is a hindrance to our investigative independence. In practice, we will frequently inform members of An Garda Síochána so that they can facilitate that search. However, that is an operational decision to be made by the investigators. Searching Garda stations should not be subject to Garda permission. That is a challenge around the independence.

The other issue of independence that we are concerned about is the requirement that we submit our report via the Minister for Justice and that it be laid with the Minister’s approval. We would look closer to what the defence ombudsman and others do and ask that we lay the report directly before the Oireachtas to demonstrate that independence. That is one of the areas we have concerns about.

We have concerns about timeliness in that the Bill places a requirement on the new body to act in a timely manner. That is fine and we accept that. However, it places no equivalent requirement on An Garda Síochána to respond and support our investigation in a timely manner. That we could be held to account for delays from An Garda Síochána is unfair and could reflect on us.

The biggest issue, which will affect timeliness and independence and is a bit of a stuck record, is resources. This new Bill will place potentially a significant number of additional investigations - 1,400 - with us and a significant addition of processes with us, so we need to be resourced to deliver that. We need to be resourced to deliver those additional investigations, which will also bring additional complexity because some of them will come from within An Garda Síochána if there are incidents of concern. We need to be effectively resourced so our independence and timeliness are not hindered by lack of resource.

Those are the pros and cons of the Bill as we see them at the moment.