John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I expect to be brief. I will not take up too much time. I welcome the opportunity to make a couple of points. I welcome the fact the Minister and the Government announced yesterday that there will be an investigation by a High Court judge.

While I have not been involved in the debate, like everybody else I have seen debates in here and on television, and all the rest of it over the past couple of weeks. It is important that the Garda is allowed to perform the role that it has been appointed by the State to do, to counteract crime and to protect the law-abiding citizens of the State. It is important that there is an oversight GSOC, which was appointed at the beginning of the millennium because of the need to oversee how the Garda performs its role and to rule without fear or favour.

There have been so many agendas flying around in the past couple of weeks. I will not mention any side on it. It is important now that everybody steps back and allows this process announced by the Minister yesterday to take place. It is important that there was an eight-week timeframe put on it, in other words, there will not be any delay in the findings. It is important that there is a report here, that the High Court judge reports back to the Minister, the Government and the Dáil and there is a debate on it, but we should not spend the eight weeks in a continuation of what we have seen for the past two or three weeks. This needs to be brought to a finality.

This process that was announced yesterday will bring it to that finality, both parties involved - the Garda Síochána and GSOC - will be allowed to fulfil their roles to the highest standards possible, and GSOC will oversee the Garda in fulfilling its role.

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