Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

He made the point that if information or documents requested by the Garda Ombudsman, or indeed other bodies, were withheld on security grounds, there should be an independent adjudication system, for example, as I have defined here, a High Court judge or person of that calibre. It is important because there will be grey areas. There will be matters of importance where the Garda Síochána may believe on security grounds that something should not be submitted, information should not be given or an investigation should not take place, but when the situation is examined, that is not the case. It is important that it is not just the Minister who makes that call. I like to think she would welcome that responsibility being taken off her. This goes back to the point Deputy Wallace made earlier, which I totally agree with, namely, that one of the big problems we had in recent times was that the former Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter, had a sort of umbilical relationship with a former Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, which was very unhealthy and led to a lack of independence from the Minister and a lack of due diligence around the issues that were coming to him one by one. That kind of relationship must end. If we allow a situation where these security matters are deliberated only by the Minister, we go back to that type of scenario. If there is an independent adjudicator who has a role designated by the State - I am suggesting here that this would be a member of the Judiciary, a High Court or Supreme Court judge, whatever the Government would deem appropriate - that body decides what is sensitive for security reasons and cannot be given, and what is not. That is the purpose of these amendments. It is vital. I was trying to figure this out myself, but when Conor Brady said it - obviously he is a respected person, a former Garda Ombudsman Commissioner - I took it down and thought it was a solution to the conundrum we may have.

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