Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I support amendment No. 42 on the two grounds outlined by the proposer. Transparency in the appointment of the deputy Garda commissioner, assistant Garda commissioner and the Garda Commissioner is long overdue. History shows that only two Garda Commissioners have ever been dismissed from office. One of them subsequently got involved in politics. While those who are appointed to the office of Garda Commissioner have the ability to perform their role and to perform it in an objective manner, as was the case with judicial appointments made in the past, the impression persists that being on the right side of the fence is the prime criterion as to whether they are appointed at a particular time to that position. A transparent procedure must be put in place to prevent those perceptions continuing into the future.

There is a need for a body that would exercise that function and, indeed, other functions of accountability. Since being elected to this House in 2002 I have only once seen the Garda Commissioner appear before the justice committee. It was the previous Garda Commissioner, Mr. Byrne. I was asked to attend that meeting by the committee chairman to raise issues I had raised previously in the House when discussing justice legislation. I found the occasion most unsatisfactory. It was not an exercise in accountability. I considered it nothing less than an exercise in public relations on behalf of the then Commissioner and the Garda.

If there is to be true accountability and if it is to be exercised through a committee of this House, stronger powers will be required. Those powers will have to be exercised in the same way as in other jurisdictions. We do not come even close to exercising the type of committee powers that can be exercised in the United States, for example. Until we are prepared to make parallel changes in our committee system, the issue of accountability, even after this Bill is enacted, will continue to be as nebulous as it has been throughout the history of the State. In passing this Bill on those terms we will not have done a good day's work.

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