Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I probably sound like a broken record but we often do not think about public safety in terms of occasions when gardaí are overly aggressive or abuse stop and search powers. The use of stop and search powers is for other legislation at another time, however. Sometimes public safety can be threatened in particular communities because some gardaí do not necessarily work towards having a positive relationship with the community and they can be verbally or physically aggressive. That also has an impact on public safety because it creates a sense of unsafety in certain communities when there is a garda present. While it is really obvious when we look at the public safety of society as a whole, in more micro situations, where some gardaí are extremely or unnecessarily heavy-handed in certain situations, it affects public safety in the long term because it affects the relationship between particular communities and An Garda Síochána. I will withdraw the amendments. I am trying to stretch out the idea that when we think of public safety it is not always as obvious as an incident or something easy to point at. It is also about how we engage more generally with policed communities and the fact that some gardaí actually do a disservice to any sort of relationship building between An Garda Síochána and particular minority groups, etc.