Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the fact the Minister has embraced the concept of the ombudsman. I agree the Executive should be informed about what is happening within an Garda Síochána. However, the difficulty is that until now the Executive has not kept itself so informed.

The Minister referred to the North as a polarised society but there is also a polarised society here in that people have lost faith in the justice system. Victims of injustice want a voice. They are not happy with the system as it is or has been for many years. For many years, we were told there were no corrupt Irish police. The reality is that there were corrupt Irish cops throughout the world, whether in America, Canada or Australia. The line we were told was that we could not possibly have them in Ireland.

The events in Donegal shone a light on what one Garda division got up to. However, it is not the case that these were isolated incidents. If the Minister or the Executive believe the incidents were isolated, they have not been doing their job.

The Minister referred to simple solutions and spoke in terms of one individual rather than three. The argument against having one individual was that it was clear the public might have more faith in one individual who would have a certain amount of independence and power, whereas the power might to some extent be dissipated among three individuals. There is a difficulty in this regard. A situation arises at present whereby solicitors encourage victims who have been assaulted in police stations.

See this speech in context