Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The issue of corporate governance of the Garda Síochána is important. For that reason, the Government authorised me to ask Independent Senator Maurice Hayes to establish a group to advise on this area. He has given me his report, which I have published. We have also received a report from the Garda inspectorate. Happily, there was considerable overlap between the two in their approach. Paragraphs 9 and 10 of the report of Senator Maurice Hayes's group read:

9. A prerequisite for progress, in our opinion, is to get the top structure right. The present structure of a management group of 15 meeting monthly should be replaced by a more tightly knit and focused executive group meeting weekly under the chairmanship of the Commissioner — this would provide strategic leadership, drive change, allocate resources, set targets, monitor performance and maintain professional standards and managerial efficiency. It would also free the Commissioner of much of the day-to-day detail and leave him free for the strategic task of leading the organisation through a period of rapid change.

10. Our preferred top structure would comprise a Board of Management, meeting weekly, chaired by the Commissioner with three Deputy Commissioners (one of whom would be a civilian with appropriate experience of finance, HR or change-management in large private or public sector organisations). We wish to give further consideration to the possibility of providing a review and challenge capacity within the Board at crucial stages in the annual planning cycle by the introduction of two or three persons with relevant experience at a senior level in the private and wider public sector. We will return to this issue in a later report.

In response to what Deputy O'Keeffe said, this is not envisaged to be a pale imitation of an authority. This is an executive board, which meets the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners weekly to ascertain progress on particular areas, for example, radio communications, civilianisation, etc.

Since the commissionership of Daniel Costigan, the force has always had a garda at its head and a structure with gardaí in the top positions. This may be acceptable in one sense because it helps it to be a disciplined organisation and it means that people who join the force see they can go the whole way to the top, as it does not have outsiders, an officer class or executive class telling them how to run the force. I am happy and comfortable with that concept. However, there is a downside to it. There are people working in banking, insurance, the public sector etc. who have tremendous experience of operating other large organisations and who could make a great input on an executive basis to assist the gardaí who have come up through the ranks and have been involved from the level of investigating crimes to being in charge of a division of the force.

This has nothing to do with an independent police authority. This is a management board that is supposed to assist the gardaí at the top of the organisation to make hands-on decisions to drive the force forward and to drive change. I am very appreciative of the way in which the Commissioner has driven the process of change in recent years. The Garda Síochána is tremendously proud of its reputation. It has had its own way of doing things for a considerable time. It is difficult and challenging for somebody who has come to the top of an organisation of which he is tremendously proud to announce that he is changing the way it is to be run and is bringing in other people to assist him. This House owes a huge debt to the present management of the Garda Síochána for its willingness to drive and accept change and be champions of change within the force.

Deputy Lynch asked me whom I had in mind. I certainly do not have barristers and solicitors in mind as the candidates. It could be that some barrister or solicitor might be suitable. However, it would not be either an indicator or an advantage to be either a barrister or solicitor for this job.

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