Martin Conway (Fine Gael)
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I thank Ms Feehily and her colleagues for attending. I was a member of the joint committee in the previous Dáil.

The role has changed and evolved greatly and the establishment of the Policing Authority is a timely step forward. Members of the former Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality went to see how it was done in Scotland and Northern Ireland. We garnered a lot of information and knowledge from that experience about how it was done in those jurisdictions. I note Ms Feehily's comments about doing an awful lot of work very quickly in terms of the establishment of the authority and I commend her on that.

I have a number of observations on Ms Feehily's opening statement. She indicated the policing plan has to be referred to the authority before the end of November. How will that be managed? How much influence will the Policing Authority have on the policing plan? Can the authority say it is not happy with the policing plan and tell the Commissioner to go away and come back with a completely new one? At which point does the management of An Garda Síochána have autonomy? Does the authority have complete control over the policing plan? I am interested in that bit of information. The move for absolute openness and transparency is extremely important. We have seen too much secrecy in policing in this country over the years. Ms Feehily's mission statement in terms of having transparency is important. The political side and being here today is extremely important. Ms Feehily said in her presentation she has had a meeting with the chairs of the joint policing committees, JPCs.. I would like to know a little bit more about that. I am a member of a JPC and have been for a number of years. They are a resource that is totally under-utilised. There are some counties where the JPCs are very effective and other counties and councils where the JPC barely exists and has no real function. What are Ms Feehily's observations on that?

The Policing Authority put its statement of strategy out for public consultation. I am curious to know how many submissions there were. Was there much engagement in terms of the various areas where the Policing Authority looked for the public's engagement and submissions? Was it taken up to the degree that was expected? Was it over-subscribed or under-subscribed?