Ms Nóirín O'Sullivan:

I will start with the last part of the Deputy's question.

In terms of the broader technology, the Garda Inspectorate's No. 10 report identified that our technology was about 30 years behind what it should be, a conclusion with which we absolutely agreed. The task for us then was to map out our technological needs over the next five years and beyond. We have called this building blocks. We have examined what we need to do now, and obviously the introduction of new technology will have to be done on a phased basis. Mr. Dunne referred earlier to our capacity to take on new recruits. We must also be conscious of our capacity to absorb some of the technological changes that are needed.

Our objective is to create an integrated end to end system and we have mapped out a programme which is technology enabled over the next five years. We made a very comprehensive submission to the Department and are very pleased that there has been significant investment which will take us where we want to go with technology. It is a phased programme and will be rolled out over five years. We have prioritised the implementation in terms of what will have the biggest impact on the service to the community. For example, in the initial phases, we are looking at property and exhibit management systems.

We are not just concerned with the issues identified in the aforementioned Garda Inspectorate report. Our reference point is 2005 and the implementation of the Garda Síochána Act. We looked at 41 reports into An Garda Síochána in that time, including the ten reports of the Garda Inspectorate. There were more than 700 recommendations within all of those reports. We grouped the recommendations into themes and addressed all of the recommendations in the various reports in a phased way over a number of years. Property and exhibit management was identified in our audit committee reports and also in the Garda Inspectorate's reports. The new technology in this area will allow us to track and exhibit from the crime scene all the way through to the court, which will have a big impact, particularly on victims of crime. It will impact on the professional investigation of crime and will address a lot of internal issues for our members too. That, coupled with the building programme, will help us to improve that area.

Another area on which we have started work is a small fix in the context of victim service offices. One of the issues for victims of crime is the importance of being kept up to date on their cases. We were particularly mindful of the victim's directive in this regard. A few weeks ago, we implemented a small fix on our PULSE system which allows us to track the progress of a case and to keep the victim updated. It also allows for supervisory oversight of that. It allows sergeants and inspectors to oversee it and this is very helpful.

The technology programme is a very detailed one and I would be happy to appear before the committee again and give a more detailed presentation on it and on its exact sequencing.