Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is asking a completely separate question. Of course it is important that the recommendations made by the ombudsman commission are implemented. In advance of the meeting that took place between the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and Garda Síochána, I wrote to the Garda Commissioner to respond to me about areas of concern, and he did that. Work began on this before the meeting on 23 July. Very substantial engagements were undertaken between the Garda side and the ombudsman commission side to resolve once and for all the difficulties that existed. It is crucial that when an issue arises for investigation by the ombudsman commission, it is able to perform its statutory duties in that respect and that the Garda Síochána complies with its statutory obligations.

I thought it was important also that there would be transparency to the new protocols put in place. I welcome that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission has put them on its website, and I believe it is the intention of the Garda Síochána to do the same. These protocols were finally signed off last Monday. I cannot refer to them in detail in reply to the question, but I can tell the Deputy that the protocols are substantial and address all the areas of difficulty that had been detailed in both the annual report of the ombudsman commission and in some of its more specific reports it published in recent months.

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