Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

The House will recall that three weeks ago, we welcomed the appointment of the new Garda Commissioner designate, Noel Conroy, and tributes were paid to him and to the outgoing Commissioner. One of the features of the term of office of the outgoing Commissioner was a series of internal inquiries about the conduct of the Garda Síochána. In particular, I am thinking of the inquiry set up in relation to the Veronica Guerin murder after a confession by Paul Ward was thrown out by the Central Criminal Court. Another was set up in relation to the Dean Lyons affair, in which this tragic man was wrongly accused of the murder of two psychiatric patients at Grangegorman.

There was a series of internal Garda investigations into the goings-on in Donegal. There was also an internal Garda investigation into events during the "Reclaim the Streets" protest, when Army deafness was replaced by Garda blindness. However, we have never seen a report in respect of the findings of these inquiries. In the interests of the Garda Síochána, such reports should be subject to public scrutiny.