Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

The amendment includes a reference to "the Minister" in that the Minister would determine the manner in which the members were appointed to the board. It provides also that the board shall perform such other functions as are specified in regulations made by the Minister. Contrary to what the Minister said, the board envisaged by this amendment would not be a political body in the way he outlined. The idea behind it is for the public to have a broader input into the operation and direction of the Garda and so on. The Minister is a member of a political party and most people in society have some interest in politics. One could say that anybody has a particular political philosophy or whatever but that is not the purpose of the amendment.

The Minister mentioned earlier the constitutional role of the Garda. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that the Garda Síochána is run in a way that is accountable to everybody and in which everybody can have confidence. There should be a feeling of democratic accountability, the type of accountability the Minister is trying to provide in terms of his provisions on liaison between local authorities and the Garda Síochána.