Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Bless you all.

I compliment Ms Nóirín O’Sullivan on her appointment as Garda Commissioner. It is a wonderful appointment and I commend the Government in agreeing with the independent assessment of her. There were 40 applicants and she came to the top. She is an extremely good officer who took on the drug barons in her time and was head of the training college in Templemore. It is a great day for women. It is 92 years since the force was formed and she is the first woman to become Garda Commissioner. This House should send its best wishes to her on her appointment and her achievement. It is a great day for the Garda Síochána.

I find it extraordinary, however, that Deputy Clare Daly said that this appointment shows the old boys’ club is alive and well and that we can look forward to the continuation of the blue wall of silence. Ms O’Sullivan is a woman, not a member of the old boys’ club. Women tend not to become members of the club. Deputy Daly can keep her opinions to herself. Ms O’Sullivan is a role model for women, particularly for young women in the force and others who wish to join it. It shows a woman can come to the top in any position in this country, be it in the role of President, as in the past, or Taoiseach, in the future. We want more women in politics, in the Dáil and the Seanad.