I have been trying to find out for some time the number of members of An Garda Síochána who have criminal convictions. I cannot get anywhere with the Minister or the Garda Commissioner. The latest response I got was that this information was not held centrally and would require a disproportionate amount of time and resources to address. Does the Taoiseach think that is acceptable? I think it is absolutely shocking. The public expects gardaí to undergo rigorous vetting. Will the Taoiseach tell me if the law currently provides sufficient powers to dismiss Garda members convicted of criminal offences? If not, will the Government introduce legislation to address this gap? People will be quite shocked to hear that and to hear that the information is not available to us. That is critical information. Women who are going in to be helped by a member of An Garda Síochána need to be sure that that Garda member is not already convicted of a crime of domestic violence themselves.

I did not get the specific question asked, but I agree that there should be a centralised system whereby if a garda is convicted of a criminal offence, that should be collated, recorded and collected by An Garda Síochána just as the Defence Forces are now devising a system to do that in respect of Defence Forces members who may have committed a criminal offence. That level of data and knowledge is required centrally and should be known centrally from a proper management perspective.