Mr. John Redmond:

It comes back to what I mentioned earlier - the protocols agreed between the Garda Commissioner and GSOC with no reference to the association or any opinion taken or sought from the association. That might have helped in some of this. Of course there will be difficulties when a group set up to investigate complaints interacts with the person against whom a complaint was made. We demand no more than to be treated as fairly as anyone else in society. We are members of the Garda organisation but we have rights the same as anyone else and we are only asking that we be treated the same as others with regard to the rights people have. I am not saying for a minute that someone has the right to say nothing about a complaint. I would not suggest that for a minute. If something is being alleged, a person either puts up a defence or accepts what is being said. However, we do have rights. I am not familiar with the charter of fairness to which the Deputy refers and the AGSI is aware of nothing that was drawn up, apart from the human rights aspect of it. I do not know about that part. If there had been more interaction between both-----