Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael)
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Just to clarify, I am not casting any aspersions on that. I have seen it. I have seen the videos of the interviewing of witnesses and have always been struck by just how forensic, detailed, considerate and caring it is. There is no leading or anything like that. It is eliciting the witness detail in a very considered way. That is what I have seen in prosecutions that were brought forward, and guilty verdicts were found. I am curious as to how this is different. Will anything be different now?

This is not really a concern but I am just thinking about angles that are or are likely to come at us. If there are 95 specialist people around the country but there are children coming through a particular model in a concentrated place, is that the same people rather than the 95 specialist Garda interviewers? If there is a much smaller number, are we leaving ourselves in any way open to an accusation of undermining the presumption of innocence? There are people who are then vested in improving. I know the limitations and guidelines and how carefully thought-out they are, so I am not for one minute casting any aspersions on the Garda. I am just wondering whether there is danger of “Oh, well these people were going to lead” or anything like that because we are now concentrating it. I presume it will all be done under camera anyway, so there will be that verification. However, have these considerations been made?