Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

There are individual cases. Lay people can find it difficult when they find themselves in situations with very strong personalities. By virtue of being in these positions, such people have strong personalities. Equally, they have a wealth of experience in the area. I am concerned that this experience could be used to nullify the argument that the person who is not a professional in that area might have. How will the Tánaiste ensure that will not happen? Will we have people who are experienced in putting the case or making an input in terms of how the Garda interact with the average person on the street?

We all occasionally get complaints — I am sure the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform gets them more than any of the rest of us — about the behaviour of gardaí. It can be hard to talk to someone with that wealth of experience, force of personality and enormous presence by virtue of his or her position. I would like the Tánaiste to outline how this can be done. It is difficult to do but it needs to be done. We need to ensure that the public will have a high degree of confidence in this type of board. I do not necessarily believe that it should merely contain the professional classes, members of which by their nature probably never get mistreated by the Garda.

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