On Tuesday, the Committee of Public Accounts published its periodic report. It makes for sober reading on the level of oversight and accountability in the State. We need accountability in public office and the report gave us shining examples and illustrations of why we need a real change in Irish politics.

One of those shining examples was the decision to reopen Stepaside Garda station. This was a prime example of stroke politics if ever one was needed. The head of Dublin policing told the Committee of Public Accounts that the reopening of Stepaside Garda station was not a policing priority and that he had more pressing demands on resources across the Dublin region. Gardaí on the ground are screaming out for resources to tackle gun crime, drug crime and gangland murders, yet we have the Minister, Deputy Ross, pushing pet projects and stroke politics. Any decision to reopen a Garda station must take into account the best use of Garda resources, the best use of State funds and the policing priorities. It should not be based on whatever pet projects are in the back pockets of Cabinet Ministers.

Given the need for a holistic review of resources, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, need to explain why the Stepaside station was chosen above other pressing needs. It is hard not to conclude that this was done to give the Minister, Deputy Shane Ross, a trophy. The Government needs to understand that trophies do not make for sound policies. The Minister, of course, will not be held to account for his actions. The Government has form in this area and this is par for the course in this State.

Over the past 12 months, the Committee of Public Accounts heard harrowing evidence from the Grace case whistleblowers about their treatment by the HSE. Time and again, the HSE sought to protect the organisation and people within it over the needs of those who were abused and forgotten until the whistleblowers came along. This was also the case with regard to the Templemore training college and the millions of euros in mis-allocated funds. This issue was raised for more than ten years and it was covered up until it was too big to cover up anymore. We also have the disclosures tribunal at Dublin Castle which is trying to get to the bottom of the smear campaign launched against Garda Sergeant McCabe. This man sought to do the right thing and was viciously attacked for it not by criminal gangs, but by the State itself. How shameful is that?

We need accountability in Government and this has to come from the top down. Therefore, will the Tánaiste explain why Stepaside Garda station was prioritised over other pressing Garda and policing demands in Dublin? What actions will the Government take to ensure that we have genuine public accountability in this State and people are properly held to account? The citizens want, demand and need good governance, proper accountability, people held to account where there is wrongdoing and an end, once and for all, to stroke politics in the State.

The Committee of Public Accounts is doing good work. It is asking hard questions and exposing issues when appropriate, and we need to respond to the concerns raised through the committee. This is a good thing and it is how democracy works. Sometimes it is uncomfortable for people but it is a good thing.

On Stepaside Garda station, it is an executive function of the Government to set broad policy parameters in respect of policing, and this is what we try to do. The Garda Commissioner is responsible for the distribution of resources, including personnel, among the various Garda divisions. The programme for Government commits to a pilot scheme to reopen six Garda stations, both urban and rural, to determine their potential impact on criminal activity, with special emphasis on burglaries, theft and public order, but also looking at issues such as where population growth is at its most intense. On foot of the programme for Government and while fully cognisant of her statutory responsibilities, the then Tánaiste asked the then Garda Commissioner to undertake an analysis to identify locations for a pilot scheme of reopening stations. This was to have regard to population, criminal trends and the availability of stations for possible reuse. The acting Commissioner informed the Committee of Public Accounts in 2017 that input of local Garda management was of key importance. On 18 December 2017, the Government noted the Garda Commissioner's final report on the pilot project to reopen six Garda stations. This recommended the reopening of stations in Ballinspittle in County Cork, Bawnboy in County Cavan, Stepaside in Rush, County Dublin as well as stations in counties Carlow and Wicklow. The Commissioner has written to the Office of Public Works to progress the matter.

There was a process in which we asked Garda management and the Commissioner's office to identify areas where the possible reopening of Garda stations would be good for policing and security in those locations. One of those locations was Stepaside and we are progressing that accordingly.

The Tánaiste has not answered my question on the broader issue of accountability. This Government has had to set up more commissions and tribunals of investigation than any other Government in the history of the State. I welcome that all of those were set up, as they were necessary, but the reason they are necessary is the number of crises in public life across all services. Why do we have so many? It is because no one is ever held to account. If we consider all the crises over the past decade, not one single individual has been properly held to account.

On Stepaside Garda station, the Tánaiste needs to examine the evidence presented to the Committee of Public Accounts. The criteria given to the former Garda Commissioner by the former Minister for Justice and Equality was Government criteria. We heard at the Committee of Public Accounts that the former Commissioner could have amended the criteria, so the input that was sought from senior gardaí was solely in the context of that criteria. However, the most senior garda in command in Dublin, who was fighting and trying to tackle gun crime and serious gangland crime, was telling the public and policy makers that reopening that Garda station was not a priority. If that is the case, why is the Government pressing ahead with it?

The Tánaiste to respond.

The Government needs to respond to official reviews and reports that are sent to us by a Garda Commissioner for us to make decisions on the back of them, which is what we did. On the Deputy's generalisations that no one is held to account in Ireland, that is rubbish. The reason we set up tribunals is to hold people to account.

Name them. Who has been held to account?

What is happening right now in the tribunal is the holding of people linked to account.

It is not a kangaroo court.

It is linked to policing and many of the politically sensitive issues that have been raised by brave whistleblowers. We are getting to the bottom of these things and Ministers and former Ministers are being held to account in that tribunal.

Who has been held to account? Name them.

It is not a kangaroo court.

The Tánaiste, without interruption from either side.

That is the kind of holding to account that we democratically stand over. Perhaps Deputy Cullinane could outline what he is talking about-----

Kangaroos

-----in terms of holding people to account. What we want in government is transparency and to ensure that people who have questions to answer are allowed to do it in a fair, robust and appropriate way through investigations, inquiries, tribunals, Oireachtas committees or the court system. That is how democracy functions. We are examining new ways to add to that all the time.

Give us even one example.

That is what this House should be focusing on rather than giving the generalisations we have just heard.