Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

At that stage, the Opposition parties asked to postpone the holding of Report Stage until they had an opportunity to discuss the Morris tribunal report.

That was the sequence of events. We are now in a position to get this legislation on the Statute Book so that the implementation oversight body, chaired by Senator Maurice Hayes, can ensure that reform of the Garda Síochána gets going and is not long-fingered, as has been suggested by others, until we have another commission to look at the Garda, or the like.

The public expects us to legislate on this matter, not just to talk about legislation. The one item on which there is a major difference in principle between some of the parties in this House and others is whether there should be an independent police authority. In 1982, the Labour Party put that proposal into a programme for Government, but nothing happened in the following five years. The Labour Party resumed office in 1992 and was in office for another five years, but nothing happened. I intend to bring change, I am not interested in posturing about change.

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