Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendments Nos. 4 and 5 are straightforward. They relate to a proposal to request the authority to submit to the Minister a report on any matter relating to policing services. The authority is required to submit that report as soon as it is in a position to do so. This is to ensure that there is an option for the Minister of the day to request a report on a particular topic from the Garda authority. It is a sensible thing to do because issues may arise in the Dáil or Seanad on policing. They may be operational matters that the Garda authority has been looking at. These amendments give the Minister the power to request a report from the Garda authority.