Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Harris is an outsider in that he was not previously a member of An Garda Síochána. The Minister mentioned that the commission is an independent body, which is all the more reason there is no excuse for it not producing an interim report.

Will the commission cease to exist on publication of its report and, if so, who will have oversight of the implementation of its recommendations? In terms of holding the Garda Síochána to account, the Garda Inspectorate's recommendations are often ignored. The reason for this is weak legislation, for which the Government is responsible. The Garda Inspectorate has no statutory responsibility for the monitoring of the implementation of recommendations made in its reports. A process to enable it to do so was established with An Garda Síochána in 2008, which resulted in the publication of status implementation update reports twice a year on the Garda Inspectorate's website. While former Garda Commissioner, Mr. Callinan, complied with this process the last update was in November 2013 because former Garda Commissioner, Nóirín O'Sullivan, did away with it. She was not interested in that sort of nonsense. When we asked the Minister's predecessor why this process ceased the response was pressure of work.

Does the Minister believe the Garda Inspectorate should oversee implementation of the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Policing, which will probably comprise most of the recommendations made by the Garda Inspectorate? Will the Garda Inspectorate have a role in this regard and will the Minister consider giving it statutory powers to monitor implementation of the commission's recommendations?

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