Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I dealt with this last week. This is bigger than any political party, as the Deputy says. It is bigger than any individual, and it is about trust and confidence, it is about respect, it is about pride, it is about an organisation of 14,000 people - that rises to 15,000 people - being able to be seen to do their job professionally, competently and in the interests of the State in which we reside and the people that they have a duty of care to in terms of both their security and their protection from criminal elements.

This goes back quite a distance, as the Deputy is well aware. I might say to her that the Government treats this with the utmost seriousness. The Tánaiste briefed the Cabinet this morning on her proposals for a commission on the future of policing in Ireland arising from the decision made last week by Government that there should be an independent analysis of the figures in respect of fixed notice penalties and the question of breathalyser statistics. Both of those have been referred to the independent Policing Authority, which, as the Deputy knows, has the full right to contract in any expertise - national or international - that it so wishes to look at those statistics and determine how they happened, why they happened, who is responsible and who is accountable.

The second decision that the Government made was on the longer term restructuring of An Garda Síochána, and that is not in any way to take from the valid propositions put forward by the independent Garda Inspectorate.

It is not to take in any way from the exceptional work now being carried out by the chairperson of the independent Policing Authority, Ms Josephine Feehily, or from the review and additional powers being sought by Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring in respect of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC. The Minister is proposing to engage with this House and the Opposition spokespersons on putting together a review that will examine the management and structures of all the functions of the Garda Síochána, the composition, recruitment and training of personnel, the culture and ethos of policing, and the structures and legislative basis for oversight and accountability.

I am glad that the Garda Commissioner has published the modernisation programme. There is a whole raft of reforms currently under way, to which Deputy McDonald may not want to refer, but this commission, in which she will have a direct involvement, will be forward-looking in terms of what we want for the structure, method and recruitment of policing for years to come. The Minister will consult with the Opposition during the course of this week.

For the information of the House, last weekend, within the appointed time, I received the final report of the Fennelly commission. It was delivered to my Department after 6 p.m. last weekend. It is an extensive report which runs to over 740 pages. The executive summary runs to 85 pages. The report deals with the history of telephone recording systems, the level of knowledge of the system among gardaí, whether the recording was authorised by law or not, whether there was improper or unlawful use involved-----

See this speech in context