Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

That has always happened in my experience both as Attorney General and as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. When people are promoted on that basis, the pertinent point about the fact that they hold office from the Government is that this gives them strength in their role in that they cannot be sidelined, pushed aside or demoted because they hold their commission, like Army officers, from the Government. They are people who have a direct relationship with the Government.

The selection of a Commissioner, as with the appointment under the TLAC system of a Secretary General of a Department, must ultimately fall to the Government. It would be an abdication of the responsibility of Government to say that some other group of the great and good should say who the Commissioner or his or her deputies should be. That would be a hopeless abdication of the function of Government. I strongly believe we should stick closely to the position that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, as the member of the Government with special responsibility in this area, is accountable to this House for the conduct of the Garda Síochána. We should not adopt this woolly-minded approach which argues there is some type of middle way whereby a group of people can perform the same function in regard to the Garda Síochána as the RTE authority does for RTE. That is a mistaken view of democracy and is wholly misconceived.

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