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. Mark Toland:

We have identified some pieces of legislation which specify a chief superintendent, and we state that all of these instances should be examined. There is no need for some of these things to be done by a police officer. There is a strategic transformation unit and we see professional change management skills. We have identified legislation which is unnecessary because what it deals with is not evidentiary. There are some roles, particularly technical bureau forensic experts, involved in the chain of evidence, but in most other police services they are performed by professionally trained support staff and not by police officers.