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

Compensation issues may well arise - that is certainly a possibility - and this will depend on the details of each case. We will have to wait to see precisely what emerges from these court hearings. It is impossible to predict at this point. As I said, all the cases that came to court needed to come to court except for the 5,600 in respect of which there was only one charge. In the other 96% of cases, other offences were involved.

The authority is overseeing the reforms that have been outlined by everyone, in particular by the Garda Inspectorate, which have now been incorporated into the reforms set out in An Garda Síochána's five-year plan. I have the first report, it is available for Deputies to read and the Policing Authority is overseeing the changes being implemented. Clearly, there is more work to be done, but if we had not established a Policing Authority and if we did not have a Garda Inspectorate, what we have been hearing about in recent days might not have emerged. Issues such as these are appalling - we are all appalled - and the figures involved are staggering, but it is important that they are out there in the full public light and that action can now be taken on them. The Policing Authority will have a key role in dealing with them.

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