Mr. John Redmond:

We have been calling for some months for an expansion of the review of the Garda organisation. It could not be more timely to have a total review of the organisation of an Garda Síochána and not just the narrowly focused review, that is being undertaken under the Haddington Road agreement. The Garda Inspectorate is carrying out one aspect of the review and Mr. Ray McGee is carrying out the other aspect. It is time for a complete look at everything connected to the running of the Garda force. May I suggest that it should include also how best to deliver oversight in relation to the authority, including whether GSOC, the Garda Inspectorate and the Garda professional standards unit should come under it as well? For instance, the professional standards unit does some of the things to a lesser extent but not to the same depth and breadth as the Garda Inspectorate, two different bodies that probably look at similar things, two different budgets, spending time and effort doing the same things to some extent. Should the tasks be split among one group that would include the professional standards unit, the Garda Inspectorate and GSOC? It does not make sense to have three groups doing the same thing.