Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I find it mindboggling that the Minister is prepared to kick this down the road for so long. He might have noticed the comments of Denis Bradley the former vice chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board who went to the nub of the issue when he stated that the Patten Commission worked because there was clarity as to who was in charge: "The Northern Ireland Policing Board would be the hub and the driver of change, appointing all senior police officers and holding the chief officer to account for delivery and change." We do not have that here. We watered down what we were going to do with the Policing Authority. It is a creature of Government. It does not have the independence it requires to do its job properly.

We are not making progress and the Minister says it would be so unfair to move people from the hierarchy but it is unfair to most of the gardaí of Ireland to leave them in place. The Minister could give them a different job. I am not saying put them on the dole but the majority of gardaí would like a change of hierarchy because they know they would have a better police force with a good authority. The fish rots from the head, as the Minister well knows. We need change. Does the Minister disagree with what was done with the Patten report because it recommended removing the hierarchy and starting again? We have to start afresh or we will not do things any differently than we have done for a long time. There are serious problems.

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