Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The Labour Party has been in office since then, but it has not attempted to establish a Garda authority again. The Labour Party was in office with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in the 1990s, as Deputy Rabbitte will recall, but it did not attempt to resurrect this discredited idea before now. The establishment of an independent police authority would damage seriously the right of the Dáil to hold me accountable——

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