Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Unlike Deputy Daly I did not read all of the report. I read less than half of it and that was tough going enough. I will not go over it all again. The scariest thing in what I read is that for me, sadly, things have not changed dramatically in how we do policing. There is still a serious lack of management in how the system operates and there is capacity for people to act without having to be accountable. There is very little transparency in how the force operates. As we have seen, when whistleblowers point that out, they suffer the consequences.

In his conclusion the Taoiseach said, "It is also essential that the reform processes already put in train by this and the previous Government are sustained." As I said to the Minister in the previous debate in the House, we have been hearing that since 2014 and, sadly, things are as dysfunctional now as they were three years ago. The Taoiseach said also, "It is inappropriate and unhelpful to the reform process to seek to interfere politically with the statutory process of accountability which already exists through the Policing Authority." He talked about the independence of the authority. The authority is only independent in the performance of its functions, subject to the Act. According to the Act, all of the authority's powers and functions are either shared with or subject to the approval or consent of the Minister or Government. It is not independent. The Garda Commissioner remains exclusively accountable to the Minister rather than the authority. The Minister alone has the power to issue directives to the Garda Commissioner.

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