Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

By "transparent" I mean that advertisements will be placed internationally and the Public Appointments Service has a very clear process that will be followed in terms of recommendations. The Deputy's question is slightly premature in that the Cabinet took a decision on an independent policing authority, and both processes - the appointment of the Garda Commissioner and the development of the authority - are moving along in parallel. We have yet to develop the precise detail of the legislation that will lead to the establishment of the independent Garda authority. The Deputy's questions were central to the consultation seminar I held last Friday in Farmleigh and to the justice committee's deliberations and visits to Belfast and Scotland.

From the way independent Garda authorities are handled in different countries, it is very clear that the process varies in terms of involvement by governments, involvement by policing authorities, the way appointments are handled and the personnel involved. In Farmleigh on Friday, all the stakeholders asked about the role and responsibility of a new Garda authority and its relationship with the Government, the Oireachtas, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and the Garda Inspectorate. Towards the end of the year we will, hopefully, be able to move forward with certain elements of the Garda authority, whether appointing a chairman or taking other decisions. We will ensure that, with the way the two processes are developing, there is the potential for the kind of overlap the Deputy describes.

See this speech in context