Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

Better again. She was a special lady from west Cork. She obviously had great talent and was recruited by the PSNI and is now an officer of the force. If the PSNI can do it, what is stopping us? Should we not be making such appointments? I would like to see such issues highlighted and explored.

Perhaps the Minister will question the management approach in the Garda if I quote an example of it which arose in July 2001 in the context of the McBrearty saga. The then Commissioner, Mr. Pat Byrne, gave a newspaper interview which I quote with a degree of incredulity. He said:

The perception of what went on in Donegal is, I think, more serious than the actuality of what happened but at the same time, it does not mean I am happy. I am not at all happy. I made a decision to transfer senior officers, some of them very close friends of mine. I didn't do that lightly.

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