Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I acknowledge that the Minister has moved and that he listened but when he introduced the legislation he was not for moving. He was master, then all of a sudden he moved. Was he wrong in the first place in what he produced?

We are making a reasonable case which has the backing of a number of people, including the person he has appointed to oversee the implementation of the Bill, Senator Maurice Hayes. He examined models abroad and his preference is still a single ombudsman. I would like to be able to say the Minister is correct but it is obvious he intends to reject the amendments. I look forward to being proven wrong and that this ombudsman commission will do the work it is required to do.

We are not as distant from the situation in Northern Ireland as the Minister would believe because one of the major tasks facing us, considering the revelations in the Morris tribunal, is to build community support for the Garda Síochána, in Donegal at the very least but also throughout the country. Simple models work. People understand who is the person in charge. We made an argument about what would happen if somebody fell ill. What if Nuala O'Loan fell ill? What if the Taoiseach or somebody else fell ill?

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