I call Deputy Clare Daly on behalf of the Technical Group.

Is the Taoiseach aware that the foremost authority on road traffic legislation in Ireland has stated that there is nothing in legislation to allow senior gardaí to cancel any penalty points? Superintendents are making what he calls secret decisions behind closed doors with no authority in road traffic legislation to allow them to do so. This is a frightening situation, an affront to the premise that the law should be conducted in public. That is not only his informed opinion but is supported by Deputies on this side of the House who have repeatedly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality to specify the legislation that he believes gives power to senior gardaí to terminate penalty points. He has not yet answered those repeated questions.

Does the Taoiseach share our surprise that the Minister for Justice and Equality, whom we believe has not yet seen the report of his own internal inquiry, has concluded that one of its key recommendations is that PULSE access must be restricted to rank and file gardaí? In other words, the conclusion of a report initiated on foot of evidence that rank and file gardaí had of malpractice by senior gardaí is that no rank and file gardaí will ever again have access to that information. In other words, the only people who can see what senior officers are doing will be senior officers. One could not make this up.

Will the Taoiseach tell us whether the Minister is deliberately trying to make sure that there will never again be a Garda whistleblower? Where is the protection for people who put their necks on the line to unearth malpractice, as the Minister encouraged them to do when he initiated his whistleblowing system? How can we have any confidence in an internal inquiry conducted by the Garda into its own activities when before it started the Commissioner said there was no basis to the allegations and before it concluded the Minister said that the solution should be to gag the whistleblowers? Will the Taoiseach tell us what legislative basis there is for gardaí to terminate penalty points? Is it not time to launch an internal inquiry? If not, who is guarding the gardaí?

Deputy Daly has raised two points. First, in respect of whistleblower legislation, a comprehensive Bill covering the entire range of whistleblowing and passing of information will be published and passed in the House later in the year. The report the Deputy mentioned has been prepared by the Garda Commissioner for the Minister for Justice and Equality. As I speak I cannot tell the Deputy whether the Minister has actually received the report. If he has not, he is due to receive it shortly. The report will be published in full. It will be debated here and I will not comment on reports that the Deputy has of what might be in the report. When the Minister has the report he will publish it and it will be debated here and everybody will have an opportunity to have their say on it.

I did not make any comment about a report that has not yet been published. That would be entirely inappropriate. The questions I raised related to comments and speeches made by the Minister and points that he has already ascertained. I would like the Taoiseach to deal with the question I asked. Does he think it is appropriate that the Minister, who commissioned this report that allegedly nobody has seen, has already concluded that some access to PULSE should be removed? He did not answer my question about the legislative basis for gardaí to have the power to terminate fixed-charge penalty points. When he answers that question he might refer to the Road Traffic Act 2010, which removed the right from judges to use the Probation of Offenders Act precisely because it would mean that penalty points could be terminated, which should not happen. Why and on what legislative basis does the Taoiseach maintain that gardaí have this mythical power?

The Deputy is quite well aware that it is not a function of the Taoiseach or any Minister to interpret the law. The report to which she refers was prepared by the Garda Commissioner for the Minister for Justice and Equality. When it is in the hands of the Minister it will be published and debated here and the questions that the Deputy raises about points of law, legislation on penalty points or any other matter connected with PULSE and other areas will be discussed in open session in the House.