Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

That is the point. The capacity of the Commissioner as Accounting Officer is purely financial. He makes budgetary decisions and it is a powerful position. Generally speaking, his accountability as Accounting Officer is to the Committee of Public Accounts. There is no reason the Commissioner and the deputy commissioners should not be regular attendees before a policing and crime prevention committee of this House where they are asked about the policing plan, their annual plan and developments that have emerged in the recent past and, without micro-managing them, asked to publicly state whether they agree with the Minister's assertion that they have enough resources. They would not be brought into conflict with the Minister because, obviously, that would not be desirable, but those kinds of questions would be probed. For example, they would be asked what resources they have for the national drugs unit.

The idea that I must keep batting forward——

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