Ms Josephine Feehily:

One can always learn. I would never say we would not consider and revise our procedures. I must return, however, to my earlier remark. As an oversight body, we are in daily contact with the Garda at official and authority levels and by telephone, letter, etc. For us, the Garda organisation is the body we oversee. It is not a matter of making a distinction between civilian and uniformed members; we oversee the performance of the organisation. As an oversight body and a regulator, we could be at severe risk of becoming conflicted, and that is why we have these procedures. Within the constraint concerning how we avoid becoming conflicted, becoming involved in an employment matter that is not our business or becoming involved with an issue that has internal dynamics for which we are not responsible or of which we could never be fully aware, we have to be extraordinarily careful not to become conflicted. That is the reason we have procedures in place that mean all our engagements are on the record. They take place through the liaison office and they are transparent. The Commissioner and the Commissioner's senior team have a line of sight on our engagement. Then we can say to the Commissioner this is the information we received.

As a regulator and overseer, one must guard oneself absolutely against becoming involved in factions that might cause one to become conflicted. Within that principle, we will absolutely revisit and review in light of this experience what we might have done differently but we would always have that constraint because we regulate the entire organisation. It could just as easily be that we would have a performance issue with one side this week and another side next week. Therefore, we have to be extraordinarily careful and take the official front door.