The buck stops with the Minister.

The buck does stop. As I said, I do not believe An Garda Síochána should be accountable directly to the Minister.

It is and he is the boss.

That is absolutely right. We will look at how we could improve the legislation.

Does the Deputy Leader have full confidence in him?

Naming Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell in her new role reminds me of the naming by Sinn Féin of Maurice Manning as Leader of the Seanad, which was equally amusing.

Senator Colm Burke also spoke about the domestic violence issue and pointed to some examples highlighted yesterday by NGOs which gave evidence to us on such violence, delays in family court hearings and so on. He pointed to the contribution the Minister had made in improving family law.

Senator Feargal Quinn commended Senator Sean D. Barrett on the Road Traffic Bill 2013 and raised the issue of GSOC. He referred to reports under section 80 of the 2005 Act. In fact, that is not the relevant provision in the current controversy. It was raised wrongly in the Dáil by the Minister but he later corrected himself. The relevant provisions are sections 102 and 103 of the Act and I suggest colleagues look at them. Section 102(4) provides for the public interest investigations of the sort GSOC, in fact, commenced, although it is unfortunate that we did not know this until later last week. Once such an investigation begins, under section 103, GSOC has an obligation to supply the Minister with a report. It is a different, qualified obligation in the sense that GSOC does not have to provide the information if it believes it is not in the public interest to do so. The legislation is complex in terms of reporting requirements. GSOC has placed other reports before the Oireachtas under section 80, but in this controversy there are different provisions which deal with reporting obligations.

Senator Jim Walsh also spoke about post offices.

Senator Paul Bradford spoke about international affairs. I can certainly ask for the Tánaiste's presence. He was in the House recently for a debate on the situation in Syria. I understand he is in Brussels this morning, attending an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council meeting of EU Ministers on the crisis in Ukraine. It is a very serious crisis, on which I am sure he will be happy to update us in the future.

Senator John Crown spoke about the 2005 Act. Again, I would like to stress that it is not the Legislature which oversees An Garda Síochána under that Act. The Senator is right on the culture of a lack of protection and support for whistleblowers. The Government is bringing forward the Protected Disclosures Bill 2013 which is on Second Stage in the Dáil. It will be the first time we will have comprehensive protection for whistleblowers which is very important across all sectors. Senator Fidelma Healy Eames also spoke about whistleblowers and the 2005 Act. In respect of Mr. Oliver Connolly and the call for a new confidential recipient, I think the Minister is now saying he will amend the Act, which is very welcome, to enable serving gardaí to go directly to GSOC which they could not previously do. I understand the confidential recipient was introduced in the 2005 Act as an alternative. It may be that there is no requirement to have a confidential recipient if we see that amendment come through quickly. Clearly, there is a concern that there is no mechanism for internal complaints by gardaí and perhaps a temporary person might have to be appointed. However, in the longer term it is envisaged that this problem will solved by an amendment to the Act.

Senator James Heffernan spoke about rural post offices. I think I have dealt with that issue.