Mr. Hugh Hume:

I can talk a bit to that. Discourtesy could fall into a number of different areas. It could end up in our local intervention scheme, where a Garda member is spoken to by an inspector. It is not actually investigated; it is more between the complainant and the gardaí, where they come to some resolution. The Deputy is right that it could go back to a Garda SIO to investigate and make recommendations, if it was a very low-level discourtesy. However, if there was any indication that the discourtesy was accompanied by any unpleasant behaviour linked to protected characteristics or any sort of bias, then we would potentially retain that and investigate it ourselves.

There is a broad range. The Garda SIO is required to report back to us on the outcome of its findings and if we identify ongoing trends, we would issue a systemic recommendation around those behaviours. We have done so in the past, based on behaviours we have seen across a broad range of wrongdoing.