Mr. Peter Whelan:

We are looking at a very large-scale recruitment exercise. The Senator is correct. We are fishing in a very small pool. The profile we have at the moment of investigating officers would be former Defence Force military police, former people from regulatory authorities, former international police services and some former gardaí. That is the type of pool. It is anyone with investigative experience because we are a civilian oversight body. We are looking for civilians who have any experience in doing investigations.

Under the investigating officers, we have assisting investigating officers who we over time bring to the level of investigating officer. Then they have the opportunity, if they want, to progress into that grade. They would have less experience coming in but they would be upskilled while on the job.

It will be a very difficult recruitment exercise. There are some people out there. We have a panel at the moment of investigating officers. We use the Public Appointments Service, PAS, to do all of our recruitment. With vetting and clearance, it takes quite a while to get someone from interview stage into the organisation.