Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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I move amendment No. 79:

In page 17, lines 21 and 22, to delete “and with the approval of the Minister”.

The purpose of amendments Nos. 79 to 81, inclusive, is to amend the Bill so that the Minister's approval for setting the priorities for An Garda Síochána is not required. The authority should be independent in its functions and should be responsible for this oversight. This is in line with what I stated earlier. I think I have said enough already about the overall theme and will not go on any more about that. Amendments Nos. 93, 94, 97 and 98 are in line with that objective.

Amendment No. 99 seeks to provide that the authority and not the Minister may issue written directives to the Garda Commissioner. We believe that the Garda Commissioner should be accountable to the authority and that both should be independent of the Minister's control. These are very serious amendments because, based on the long list I read out earlier, if the Minister of State proceeds as he intends to, we will not have an independent policing authority and not much change other than another layer or a talk shop rather than a proper independent policing authority.