Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I did not hear it. The Minister can reply later. I believe the Minister is wrong on the whistleblowing issue as was Mr. Justice Morris. I know the source of the material, which was very credible. Deputy Howlin and the former Deputy, Jim Higgins MEP, were quite right in approaching the line Minister and asking him to deal with it. That is responsibility. There was no template in place at the time. In fact there is still no template in place. However, as a result of Mr. Justice Morris's recommendations a template has been put in place in the 2007 regulations arising from the Garda Síochána Act 2005 for the gardaí and other employees to be whistleblowers. At that time they acted responsibly and were quite right to do as they did. The Minister should withdraw what is, in effect, a slur on their good names.

I ask the Minister to reconsider having a commission into policing in the 21st century in Ireland. Although it was rejected by his predecessor, it would be very welcome to deal with the situation. One serious issue to which Mr. Justice Morris repeatedly returned was the registration of informants and how there should be proper oversight of informers to ensure they would not operate out of control, furthering the careers of individual gardaí and that they would not be perpetrating crime with the collusion of gardaí who might turn a blind eye to it. This was precisely what happened in the Kieran Boylan case. The rules and regulations put in place by the Garda Síochána at the highest level have been breached atrociously in this case. One of the major drug dealers in the country is operating with impunity. This issue was supposed to have been dealt with effectively by the recommendations of the Morris tribunal.

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