Mary O'Rourke (Fianna Fail)

The Bill is very interesting. The most interesting aspect is the clarity it brings to different functions of the Garda Síochána. That occurred to me when the Minister spoke recently, and on re-reading what he said and on listening to other people. It is the Bill's greatest asset that in a segmented, although not a fractured way, everyone within the Garda will know what are his or her duties and roles. That will bring enormous clarity to the duties of each component within what is a huge force for good in our community.

I recall when the Minister began speaking of this Bill and I greatly admire the consultative process in which he engaged in forming it, drawing up the heads and then holding consultations. This is a practice I adopted in legislative areas and I found it enormously beneficial. It meant that when a Bill was finally formulated and brought to Second Stage in whatever House, there was a measure of support for it because of the consultative process. That is hugely important.

I particularly welcome the fact that the Human Rights Commission has given the Bill a broadly positive response, which is good, and that there will now be a clear onus on the Garda to have regard to human rights in its daily dealings, strategic plans and objectives. That is an enormous force for good. I do not think that this would have been high up on the Garda agenda. That is not to fault the Garda or anyone else, but the concept of human rights is proper and at the heart of all one's dealings with other people, particularly with a powerful body. The Bill in this area confers an equality of dealings which the Seanad would greatly support.

When the Minister initially announced his plans for this Bill, there was a general feeling of "them and us", a feeling of us possibly being "agin" them. Thankfully, because of public debate and consultation, that feeling has greatly dissipated, I have talked informally to some gardaí in my own area about the Bill and what it means. These talks did not take place in a structured way in terms of having a meeting, but there was general approval for the clarity and delineation in the Bill. That is good because it is certainly not a matter of "them versus us".

We have a huge bulwark of enormous good in this country, namely the Garda Síochána. We all recognise that. The Minister paid a very generous tribute to the Garda in the closing stages of his speech on Second Stage. The Garda is there for us, to serve the community in a collective sense and to serve each community member in an individual sense. That is why the human rights element is so important. Some of the proposals adopted in the 1924 Act and in subsequent Garda Acts were embedded in the previous century and we inherited them when we got our independence. There was nothing wrong with that. They were good terms for those times, but times move on and it is coming close to a century since 1924. There is no question that all of us, the Garda and the community, would become like fossils, stuck in the one legislative ambit with one way of looking at things and not seeing the reason for modernising, which the Garda clearly does. All of this is interesting in a new century and in terms of how we view ourselves and our roles vis-À-vis the Garda.

The Minister rightly paid tribute in the House to Senator Maurice Hayes for the role he played in the policing body in Northern Ireland. I take the opportunity to commend Ms Kathy O'Toole, who is a member of the PSNI board whom I know very well. Her people are from Athlone. She is now the head police commissioner for the whole of Boston, commanding 3,000 members of the force. She is an Irishwoman in her late 40s, a remarkable person with considerable administrative and people skills. I wish her well in the new role in which she was confirmed last week. She was on the PSNI board and since the Minister paid tribute to Senator Hayes, this gave me an opportunity to bring her into the equation.

I have spoken of the clarity, delineation and the consultation involved in the Bill. Regarding the role of the ombudsman commission, I smiled when the Minister said that one member must be a man and another a woman. I did not know what the third person would be. The commission is a very fine concept. It is important that the Minster will have the right to give policing directives on occasion because we often hear it said that the Minister has nothing to do with anything and cannot respond on such a matter because it is the business of a particular State body.