Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

And with Deputy Tommy Broughan. I will take four minutes and the Deputies will take two minutes each.

I start with the notion that Sinn Féin is politically motivated in bringing forward this motion. If we are to take that approach, every one of us will be accused of being politically motivated no matter what we bring before the House or say in here. I find it interesting that lately we are being accused of being populist in giving out about the Commissioner. I looked up the definition of the word "populist". It means one seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people, which is interesting.

I assure the Minister that we are as tired of giving out about the way we do policing in Ireland as she is of listening to us. We would love it if things changed and were different. If people think we should not hold the heads of authorities to account, I beg to differ. Our job is not solely to hold the Government to account. We have a responsibility to hold the leaders of many State bodies to account, not just the Garda. It is fair game that we should hold the people at the head of NAMA to account. We should hold the people at the head of the Health Service Executive to account.

If people think my life revolves around giving out about the Commissioner, I assure them that my life is not quite so sad. I have a very good life, and it does not revolve around this House either.

The Minister said it would be very foolish and tragic to deviate from the path of reform but the sad part is that we are hearing about it for the past three years because the reform was supposed to start in 2014. Sadly, things have not improved in those three years. We wish they had because given that we wanted policing to be different, it would have been great if things had really changed.

To take one answer to our questions that we got this morning, the Commissioner stated that in March 2015, an assistant commissioner responsible for traffic directed that each divisional and district officer should ensure that they had mechanisms in place to monitor mandatory alcohol testing checkpoints. That is two years ago. If the Commissioner is managing the force well, how can she have no idea two years later why the figures are exaggerated by 1 million? I do not understand that.

I did out a list of reasons the Commissioner is no longer fit for the job. I hate repeating myself and I have said so many things so often I will not go through them again but I genuinely believe it would be a very good idea to get rid of the Commissioner. It is nothing personal whatever with the Commissioner. I just think she is not fit for the job and that we should get somebody else. We should put a civilian into the post, and we should do it now and not wait another 15 or 18 months.

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