Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The meeting lasted three hours. I could only attend the end of it because it clashed with another meeting but it seemed to me there was a reluctance to answer. That is for sure. The Fennelly commission will have the appropriate powers of compellability and fact-finding and I hope full answers on those matters will be given there.

The committee also had a two and a half hour hearing with the acting Commissioner of the Garda Síochána and with Baroness Nuala O’Loan, the former Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, at which we heard very important recommendations for reform of policing oversight. That meeting received much less attention but it was very important. No doubt we will be able to have a debate here on the committee’s recommendations on policing oversight and the reform of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, in due course.

Baroness Nuala O’Loan agreed with my proposition that we should consider deferring the appointment of a new Garda Commissioner until the independent policing authority is put in place to ensure that it would take on the appointment of the new Garda Commissioner. I am very glad that it will not be an internal process but will be external.

Will the Leader arrange for a debate with the new Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Charlie Flanagan, on developments in the regulation of crèches and child care facilities? I note that a year on from the "Prime Time Investigates" programme which exposed serious problems in the running of crèches, Ciairín de Buis, director of Start Strong, said yesterday there has been very little change.