Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I said nothing of the sort about an ombudsman commission. I have the authority of the Government to establish an all-party policing and security committee. That is the appropriate way for the House to act. Members of that committee and the members of the Northern Ireland policing executive should form an all-Ireland policing forum. That is the way forward. I have established, in the legislation we will debate later this afternoon, an executive advisory board to bring in outside executive schools to assist the Garda Commissioner in the governance of the Garda Síochána. That is the right way forward and I emphatically reject the notion that it would be in any way an advance for democracy, civil liberties or anything else if the Minister in my position in a future Dáil was to stand here and say he or she could not respond to the question as to why the Garda did A, B, or C because the decision was made by a group of people independent of the Minister and over whom he or she had no control.

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