Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I defy anybody to claim the inspector is not independent. The Deputy made a throw-away remark that the staff of the Garda Ombudsman Commission are not independent. That is wholly untrue. They are not seconded members of the Garda Síochána. The commission is currently recruiting its staff and it is not, in any sense, lacking independence. It is just as independent as Nuala O'Loan is in Northern Ireland. The commission is recruiting its staff independently of me and will have a wholly independent structure. It will not be dictated to by my Department.

The former judge, Dermot Kinlen, is an independent man. He has access to prisons. I intend to provide for a statutory basis for the Office of Inspector of Prisons. I do not agree with everything in his reports, and readers of the reports could not conclude that he is dependent on or beholden to me or is trammelled in what he says and does by any consideration of a lack of independence from me.

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