Ms Nóirín O'Sullivan:

I thank the Chairman for introducing my colleagues, which I will not now do.

A core focus of An Garda Síochána is working in partnership with communities and ensuring that we protect them. As such, I thank the committee for the opportunity to update it on the progress that An Garda Síochána is making in that respect, particularly regarding our working in partnership with community groups and others.

As the committee will be aware, the issue of burglaries in rural communities and communities all over the country has been a key concern and priority for An Garda Síochána over the past year. Early in 2015, when burglaries were beginning to become more frequent, we started to plan the implementation of a new multi-strand approach to tackling key crimes. As a result, we started to implement Operation Thor in November 2015. Operation Thor used advance analysis to identify burglary hotspots and prolific offenders and increased patrols were put into such areas. We ran a public awareness campaign on how people could protect their homes and reduce the opportunities for criminals to commit crimes. We conducted numerous checkpoints to stop criminal gangs using the road network. We ensured repeat offenders who carry out the vast majority of burglaries were put under increased scrutiny. We particularly targeted high-impact prolific offenders. We worked in partnership with community groups in urban and rural areas.

The pay-off from Operation Thor has been a reduction in burglaries. The number of such crimes fell by 30% in the first quarter of 2016 and by over 25% in the second quarter. According to our public attitudes survey, the proportion of people who perceived that crime was a serious or very serious problem in their local areas dropped from 33% in the third quarter of 2015, at the height of the public's concern about burglaries, to 25% in the second quarter of 2016. We are conscious that statistics cannot be used as an excuse for under-estimating or disregarding the impact that crime has on an individual. That is a key focus as we support the victims of crime. As burglaries tend to rise during the longer winter nights, Operation Thor will continue in partnership with the community with the aim of keeping burglaries down and keeping the fear of crime low. In that regard, we welcome the Government's announcement in yesterday's budget that continued funding for An Garda Síochána will allow us to plan for the future and particularly for the year ahead.

Our close relationship with communities and the support we get from them is vital in preventing and tackling crime, particularly in rural areas. We can achieve greater results by working in partnership with the community. The Text Alert scheme, which was introduced by An Garda Síochána in co-operation with Muintir na Tíre, Neighbourhood Watch and the Irish Farmers Association, is an excellent example of this. The purpose of the scheme, under which communities set up groups to receive alerts advising them of suspicious or criminal activity in their local areas, is to ensure awareness among users of the service and lead them to report suspicious activity to the Garda. A total of 985 Text Alert groups exist throughout the country. More than 175,000 people are Text Alert members. In the average month, more than 430,000 text messages are sent using the system to prevent and detect crimes. The feedback we have received from the community shows the Text Alert scheme provides reassurance while at the same time alerting gardaí. We have also worked with the IFA on the TheftStop initiative, which is designed to deter criminals from taking and selling farm equipment by ensuring it is clearly marked with a unique ID and registered on a nationwide database. We will continue to examine new ways to prevent and detect crime in rural and urban areas by continuing our tradition of working with and building stronger partnerships with the community. It is by listening to the community that we can understand exactly how we can provide a service.

As the committee will be aware, organised crime has posed serious challenges for An Garda Síochána this year. We have made significant progress in disrupting and tackling organised crime gangs over recent months. As part of our modernisation and renewal programme, we have built on our expertise in the drugs and organised crime area by amalgamating our skills and introducing a special crime task force to focus on criminals working at lower levels in organised crime gangs. Members will have seen the results. Significant arrests and seizures in recent weeks have substantially disrupted and degraded organised crime gangs by taking guns, drugs and cash from them. Lives have been saved and more than 12 assassination attempts have been foiled. The threat posed by organised crime gangs remains a key priority for An Garda Síochána.

To give the committee a flavour of what has been done, I can state that between 9 March 2015, when the drugs and organised crime bureau was established, and September 2016, we seized over €1.9 million in cash, as well as 35 guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition, including AK-74 assault rifles, submachine guns, sawn-off shotguns, Glock pistols and other semi-automatic weapons and silencers. Drugs worth more than €36 million have been seized and we have arrested 167 people for drug trafficking, money laundering and possession of firearms. The many organised crime gangs that operate internationally cannot be tackled effectively without international co-operation. We work actively with our counterparts in Europe and with Europol and Interpol. This was seen in recent operations in Dublin and Spain and again last week in Kilkenny. For the first time, members of An Garda Síochána were accompanied by colleagues from La Guardia Civil on an operation in Dublin and we had officers present for La Guardia Civil operations in Marbella. Such operations require significant planning and information sharing over a long and protracted period of time. In that case, it had a significant pay-off and gives us a template for future joint operations.

Having spoken about the day job of providing a policing and security service and keeping communities safe, I would like to touch briefly on the modernisation and renewal programme. This comprehensive programme of reform is being undertaken by An Garda Síochána at the same time as doing the day job of providing policing and security. This is the biggest programme of change in the 94-year history of An Garda Síochána. It will change An Garda Síochána significantly and prepare it for the next 100 years of policing in Ireland. It will make the Garda a beacon of 21st century policing and security. As a result, the people of our country will be proud of the service and our members will be proud to serve in it. The programme is based on feedback from the public, our own people and critical friends such as this committee, the Policing Authority, the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and the Department of Justice and Equality.

The development of our programme of reform took on board the recommendations of all 11 reports of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, which contained over 1,000 recommendations on how improvements could be made to policing. For the first time in the history of the organisation, we have been able to use these recommendations to prepare a coherent roadmap for the delivery of real reform over the next five years. We have spent a considerable part of the last two years ensuring we secure the commitment and investment required to deliver these real reforms. We welcome this committee's decision to look at the oversight and accountability arrangements for An Garda Síochána. The recent introduction of the Policing Authority, along with the oversight arrangements by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission and the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, will provide an opportunity to meet the shared objective of promoting confidence in policing and ensuring there is transparency, such as appearances before this committee, where the public can hold us to account.

Changes already have been introduced under the programme that benefitted individual citizens and communities. These include the setting up of 28 victim service offices and the bringing together of expertise in specialist areas like drugs, organised crime, sexual crime and domestic violence. This will help to protect our most vulnerable victims. We have secured substantial investment in new vehicles and technology to create a better infrastructure for our own people and the communities we serve. We are working more closely with criminal justice partners to identify and manage repeat offenders who cause harm to communities. We have enhanced training and supports for all employees. We are creating greater partnerships in collaboration with private industry and academia. A significant restructuring of the organisation will give regional officers greater responsibility to make decisions based on taking account of local policing needs, listening to local communities and understanding what their requirements are. Restructuring at headquarters level will ensure we flatten our bureaucracy, as outlined by the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, and we have greater transparency, governance and accountability.

I am offering this level of detail because it is crucial that our legislators, and through them the public, know the progress we are making and the progress we plan to make in the coming months and years. This includes the introduction of advanced IT systems and technology to enhance the investigation of crime. We will hire civilians with the right skills and place them in the right roles to enhance the professionalism of the organisation and increase Garda presence in the community. We will improve how we investigate cybercrime and economic crime. We will enhance collaboration with national and international partners to tackle and disrupt terrorism and organised crime. Continuous professional development, mentoring and coaching will be provided to support the development and skills of all members and staff. All of this will accompany the renewal of Garda culture so that we are more open to internal and external dissent. There will be a focus on attitudes and behaviours that live up to our values, including our new value of empathy. We will learn from the experience and expertise of our partners. There will be a major focus on strengthening the governance of the organisation and enhancing our approach to risk management.

We are determined that anyone who brings forward issues or concerns will be listened to and supported. As part of this approach, we have introduced a protected disclosures policy, appointed protected disclosure managers, put a structure in place and ensured all personnel have been informed of these measures. We recognise this needs to be a process of continuous improvement. That is why we are taking external advice on our policies and procedures.

We also welcome the Policing Authority’s review of our protected disclosures policy and would welcome the views of the joint committee on the matter as well.

An Garda Síochána is committed to real change and this has begun. This major journey of renewal will not be quick or easy. It is widely recognised that cultural change takes time, but change is happening. It must happen because we are all committed to providing the communities we serve with the best policing and security service in the world.