Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That question was put to the Commissioner at a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts. Her response was that she subsequently called for a committee to be put in place and the Department of Justice and Equality was represented on the committee and as far as she was concerned, that addressed her legal obligations. I do not think anybody could accept that. The senior legal adviser to An Garda Síochána told the Commissioner that under the law, she must notify the Minister because she was now aware of these very serious allegations relating to the Garda training college. Were the Taoiseach to get a letter from his senior legal adviser, namely, the Attorney General, he would have to act on it. The notion that the problem would be solved by setting up a committee on which an official from the Department might sit and who might tell the Minister is not believable.

The Taoiseach spoke about the Commissioner acting with alacrity. She did not act with alacrity. That is the problem. It was always the case that we need to do something at the last minute and do the minimum. The audit committee had no knowledge of it when it should have been alerted to it immediately. The external chairman of the audit committee, who was a former Secretary General of the Department of Defence, was unaware of it.

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