Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Section 52 deals with the Garda Reserve. While I have no difficulty with the section, I should point out that the potential of the Garda Reserve has been raised a number of times in the House, in particular, by Senator McDowell. In the context of the challenges we face in recruiting and retaining gardaí for many reasons, we are working to improve the lot of trainees and getting more people into the Garda.There is untapped potential within the Garda Reserve. The section refers to a garda reserve having the same duties and responsibilities as a serving member of the Garda and that the roles effectively can be the same if that is the direction.

There is an opportunity here to review how the Garda Reserve is working and to examine its potential more broadly, acknowledging that, because it is a volunteer role, people do not come to that role in the same way they come to working as a permanent member of the force, where that is their full-time job and what they do day in, day out. I say this as somebody who served as a member of the Reserve Defence Force for many years. It is a different role. It is a supplementary role. We work with our permanent colleagues but we come at it from a different angle and bring to the role expertise and experience from other jobs and other professions we might have. Somebody could come in who might be a teacher or an engineer by profession or a farmer and he or she brings different expertise to that role. Given the challenges in recruiting the number of gardaí needed, which will probably persist for some time, there is an opportunity to utilise the Garda Reserve more fully and have a deeper examination as to the kind of role it could play and the kind of role it wants to play.

It would be worth having a conversation with serving members of the Garda Reserve, particularly those who may have joined and dropped out or where it did not work out, to see what could have been done differently. The numbers are not where they need to be. There are people who would join the reserve if it were made a little easier to do so and if the role were more distinct from serving as a permanent member of the force. I ask that in the context of the overall reforms of how we police that we would have a deeper look at the Garda Reserve and how it could be better utilised and maybe some sort of outreach into secondary schools at leaving cert level or into colleges and into areas where people are retired and would like to come back and have expertise to offer. There is great potential there and it has not got off the ground to the extent we would have liked. It is great to see that it has been dealt with in the Bill and that there is still a focus on the Garda Reserve and a desire to do more with it but I am keen to hear the Minister's thoughts on where she sees the Garda Reserve going within this reform process and what she thinks the potential is there for it. There is great scope there to do more with it. There is a lack of knowledge or understanding. When talking to ordinary members of the public, they are not really aware of what the Garda Reserve does or how they can join it. Perhaps another recruitment campaign could be run to try to encourage members to come in because people would be interested if they were reached out to. That would nearly need to be done regularly until it becomes bedded in and people are aware how to join because they are not fully aware yet how to do that.

Those are just some thoughts as the opportunity arose to raise them under this section.