Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Deputy Stanton. The fact that the Bill has to state that the Minister can exclude from the copy laid before the House elements that may not be suitable to be in the public domain shows why it can be argued that the appropriate place for those services is not under An Garda Síochána.

The Bill will progress and pass. Is there scope to consider at a policy level removing those elements from An Garda Síochána and setting up a national security service or agency?At present the deputy Garda commissioner is charged with the lead intelligence role in An Garda Síochána and is responsible for witness protection, informants and engaging with other police services. Yesterday I raised the difficulties that I understand we have, whereby no member of An Garda Síochána has applied for the role. This is because of other issues, which I know are being worked through in another Department. This is an area that as a country we have to take more seriously. As a country, we have to be seen to be adopting best practice. It would make sense to try and look at a policy change to move it elsewhere and, potentially, have a separate agency for this. Is the Department looking at this? Is it willing to consider this beyond the remit of the Bill? In time this might be something we could look at and the concerns raised by me and others over many weeks in the House could be taken on board. We could try to deal with our national security differently and remove the challenge we have in An Garda Síochána at present, which has highlighted this issue for us. We cannot get senior members of An Garda Síochána to apply for the lead intelligence role. This is not where we want to be. It is an unfortunate situation. It is a challenge for the Garda that perhaps it need not have in future. It is potentially something we could look at. I wanted to take the opportunity when speaking on the section to make this point on the security services.