Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Changing Policing in Ireland Report: Garda Inspectorate

9:30 am

Mr. Robert K. Olson:

Frankly, there is no such thing as a cast-iron anything. We always look for what in my parlance would be a silver bullet that would solve everything. It is much more complex than that. Everyone who is involved in that process has some role to play and now, finally, in the proposed legislation, we are putting an awful lot of that right into this policing authority. That will be something to watch, and we will see how it materialises. There is the potential, I believe, for that authority to do some good things and make some things happen. We will have to see. However, I could not sit here and say that this thing we do in Boston is great or this thing we found over in the United Kingdom is perfect. There is no such thing. It is about the Government and everyone else who is involved in that wanting to make something happen. If we have that, it will happen.