Mr. Mark Kelly:

Yes. The ICCL has been approached from time to time by people with allegations, saying that they are whistleblowers. In the past, we have referred them to bodies which we felt had the capacity to deal effectively with their complaints. However, that has become much more difficult in recent times because confidence in the existing structures has been completely undermined.
I have one footnote point to make concerning the retention of the confidential recipient role. It is fair to acknowledge that there will be a trust issue vis-à-visGSOC in the immediate future on the part of certain Garda members concerning bringing forward allegations that go to GSOC. In our view, it is appropriate that the protected disclosures legislation should be amended. It is appropriate that this function should be vested in GSOC, but we can see merit in having some form of confidential recipient structure that is the first point of contact for disaffected officers.
It struck us, looking at the famous transcript of the previous incumbent of the confidential recipient role, that one of the major things that went wrong was that there was nowhere meaningful for the allegations to go at the time. If there was genuinely somewhere meaningful for them to go, and GSOC assumed that role in a meaningful way, that would, over time, change the trust issue that may be there at the moment.