Yesterday, Kathleen O’Toole confirmed the suspicions of many, namely, that the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland is a fig leaf to divert attention away from the crisis in Garda management. She said that the commission's task is not to scrutinise the performance of individuals and that Garda management inherited a poisoned chalice. However, she forgot to tell us that the current Commissioner was part of the poison when she got the job in 2014.

Why did the board appoint someone who was part of the problem? The head of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring, said last week, "I would have thought you could have this commission done and dusted by December 1st if they just sat down and read the [inspectorate's] reports,". She went on to say that there was no guarantee that the report delivered by the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland in September 2018 would be acted upon. The head of the Garda Inspectorate, Robert Olson, has said that previous reforms identified had not been implemented. He said, "No-one had made the change happen".

In recent weeks, things have got so bad at Garda headquarters that a decision was made to grant a barrister and junior counsel to the Commissioner and to a senior assistant commissioner at the expense of the State. They cannot even be in the same room without being lawyered up as a result of the failure to resolve issues around the complaints made by the same assistant commissioner, including those relating to interference in the interview process for the Commissioner's job in 2014. This was despite the expenditure of tens of thousands in consultancy payments to a company to investigate the issue – a job that was never sent out to tender.

Interestingly, the same interview panel that trawled the world before deciding Nóirín O'Sullivan was the best person to replace Martin Callinan included Josephine Feehily, who, in her role as head of the Policing Authority, failed to recommend the removal of the Commissioner; it included Kathleen O'Toole, who yesterday indicated that she wanted to take the heat off Nóirín; and it also included Vivienne Jupp, former executive at global management consultancy Accenture, a company that benefited from multimillion euro contracts with An Garda Síochána. Vivienne Jupp was also instrumental in establishing Cyril Dunne as chief administrative officer in An Garda Síochána. He was among the first to be made aware of the Templemore scandal.

Yesterday, the outgoing Taoiseach said that if a Minister were in charge of a calamity like that at the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, that Minister would be sacked immediately . The Tánaiste might find herself heading up a different Department in a few weeks' time. The current Commissioner has given us more than enough proof that she is not the person to bring An Garda Síochána forward. These might be the last weeks of the Tánaiste in the Department of Justice and Equality. Will she not consider doing what needs to be done in the best interests of An Garda Síochána? Legislation allows for the Minister for Justice and Equality to remove the Commissioner when it is in the best interests of An Garda Síochána. It certainly would be.

I have already made my position and that of the Government in respect of the Garda Commissioner very clear. The Government established the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland under the chairmanship of Kathleen O'Toole. Deputy Wallace comes to the House and puts various names on the record. He does so again and again. I believe that we ought to observe due process.

In respect of the commission, Kathleen O'Toole is a person of the highest calibre. She is uniquely qualified to take on this task. The other 11 members of the commission are all highly respected in their diverse fields. We are fortunate that they have agreed to bring the wealth of their experience to the task of shaping the future of policing in Ireland.

The Government, along with the support of many in the House, decided to establish the commission because we took the view that it was appropriate to examine a range of issues relating to all aspects of policing in Ireland. As the Taoiseach mentioned yesterday, these include whether the combination of State security and policing should be in the one force; an examination of management and the kind of management supports that are necessary within a police force to be equipped to deal with the challenges that, sadly, we saw in Manchester this week; and the other challenges from international criminal gangs and cybercrime. These are all new challenges facing policing. It is altogether appropriate that we decided to establish the commission. It is fully independent and will, I believe, provide a useful service for the future of policing in the country. That is the only job of the commission and that is the job that it will do.

In the meantime, a vast amount of policing work needs to be done in the country, not least that which relates to international terrorism and the threat posed by those who carried out the appalling attack in Manchester this week. There are many other policing challenges. We should support An Garda Síochána in the vital work of securing the peace and keeping our communities and citizens safe. Of course, inquiries are being carried out by the Charleton tribunal and the Committee of Public Accounts.

I suggest that we await the outcome of these inquiries before there is any further comment on the particular issues they are examining.

It is outrageous that they might use international terrorism to defend the present Garda Commissioner. The house that is An Garda Síochána is falling down around her ears. While scandals, which can only be described as white collar crime, continue to escalate around Templemore, at the other end of the scale the plot thickens around the Garda involvement in the heroin trade in Athlone. On 19 May 2017, Judge Keenan Johnson, presiding in the Circuit Court, expressed his displeasure, annoyance and frustration at being seriously misled by a garda. The judge outlined in open court that on 7 June 2016, while sentencing a woman on drug offences committed on 2 June 2015, a garda purposely and deliberately misled the court. This is the same drugs operation in which other gardaí have been found to have had an involvement as a result of the protected disclosure of Garda Nick Keogh three years ago. Despite this, no one has been arrested or charged three years later. Why? It is because some of Nóirín's inner circle are being protected. This is an organisation in crisis. Will the Tánaiste allow this shambles to be her legacy?

As I have often stated, the Deputy comes into the House repeatedly and speaks about individual cases, but I cannot comment on individual cases. However, I can ensure the Garda has the resources to deal with the issues that the Deputy has outlined-----

But it is not.

-----to conduct appropriate investigations and to get on with the operational work it has to do.

Three years.

Let me be clear. At the very beginning, I indicated my concern at the findings of the interim internal audit report relating to the financial procedures in the Garda College in Templemore. It paints a disturbing picture of the way in which the college's finances were run. In short, it found that financial controls that cannot be stood over were in place there. That is the reality of the situation going right back. Action was not taken in 2008. In respect of 2009, we see reports in the newspapers today about internal inquiries at that time. We need to understand why that action was not taken at that time to deal with the issues emerging and which the Garda Commissioner has dealt with and on which she has taken action. In the most recent report she has outlined to me how the vast majority of the various recommendations in the interim draft report relating to Templemore have been implemented.