Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am in favour of a separate Garda authority and of separating the roles of the Garda Commissioner and the Minister. In other words, I am in favour of the Bill in principle. We need more transparency, accountability and openness concerning the Garda Síochána. That also goes for all authorities in all walks of life. Everybody is talking about the need for reform but much of what is called reform has more to do with scalps on a plate, sacrificial lambs and cutbacks. Real reform would be the kind that is envisaged in this Bill, whereby powers would be devolved and thus there would be more democratic accountability.

Labour Party policy was for this kind of model, which is similar to the model adopted in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland model is considered best practice, but in developing it a large amount of consultation took place. They looked at best practice across the globe and, in addition, there was widespread consultation in the community. The idea was proposed that the police is the public and vice versa. The police are there for the public and the community, which is what policing is all about. I am not saying that aspect does not exist in our model, it does, but the idea is to make that the core of the police force. The whole idea is that community policing should be at the centre of policing activity, as well as promoting prevention rather than reaction.

We have adopted some of that model's aspects. In the aftermath of the reforms in the North, the then Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, introduced the Garda Síochána Act which brought in some reforms, including the joint policing committees or JPCs. The JPCs, however, did not go as far as the equivalent policing boards in the North. In his speech, the Minister, Deputy Shatter, said he would examine the possibility of enhancing the JPCs, but we need to have a review of how those committees are working in practice. They are good forums, as such, but they do not really have any powers. In addition, the public have not bought into them.

Recently, in my local area, the gardaí have done a lot to try to improve their relationship with the public. They hold local community meetings where they consult through what are effectively policing fora. I obviously welcome that but I still feel that we did not go far enough with the joint policing committees and the Garda Síochána Act. The Bill before us is welcome and I am glad the Minister did not totally write it off. However, we are not the same as other jurisdictions such as England or smaller jurisdictions that may have a similar population to ours and have this kind of model. We are not the same as the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia. We can learn from them and use their models but, like the North, we need to develop our own model that is suitable to our needs. I agree with the principle of this Bill which is the way forward, but there needs to be consultation with all the stakeholders beforehand. That is the direction to take. We should decide that our Garda force should be independent of the Minister and have its own democratic accountable structures.

Many other issues need to be dealt with. The gardaí have huge power and while they do good work, there are problems of accountability and transparency. I raised one issue in this respect recently. The gardaí have major powers to collect information but that information should not be abused. There are also issues concerning the use of data from Pulse. All those matters need to be addressed.

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