Ms Nóirín O'Sullivan:

I thank the Chairman, and I thank Deputy Brophy for his acknowledgment of the dedication and professionalism of the men and women of An Garda Síochána who put themselves in harm's way every single day for the protection of our communities. We were reminded of that most poignantly last night as we attended a mass in Blackrock, County Louth for our colleague, Garda Tony Golden, who was shot and murdered in the line of duty while he was protecting a vulnerable woman one year ago yesterday afternoon. I thank Deputy Brophy for that and we will certainly pass that on to our members.

That is the key function of An Garda Síochána and the men and women who join on Garda Síochána do exactly that. They know the courage that is required at any given hour of the day can be called upon. They know the dedication and professionalism they need to go about their duty, whether it be like Garda Tony Golden, whether it be on the checkpoint, whether it be like what happened last Friday, confronting armed criminals who were about to cause harm to a community in Dunboyne, or whether it be like last Thursday in Kilkenny, where there were 64 arrests. A number of international observers were present to look at how we operate and how we target crime and harm to communities. I thank the Deputy for his remarks.

The Deputy asked about public confidence in the Garda Síochána and some of his later questions speak to how we have done that. Let me give a very tangible example. In April 2014 when I took over as Commissioner, trust and confidence in An Garda Síochána had reached an all-time low of 67% according to The Irish Times. We made it one of our objectives to work on restoring that confidence and trust. By international comparisons the level of 67% was high, but by Irish standards that had dipped to an all-time low. When I say that to colleagues internationally, they look in wonder. What we have done, and I will ask my colleague, Dr. Singh, to speak on it, is borne out in our most recent public attitude survey which shows that trust and confidence in An Garda Síochána has been restored to more than 85%. As Deputy Brophy said in his opening address, there is no doubt that confidence can be eroded very quickly. That is something we will never take for granted. We must ensure we build on that trust and that we maintain the trust and confidence of the community every day.

Some of the key priorities we have for doing that, and I have outlined some of them in my opening address, is making sure there is high visibility engagement in communities and that our members are out and about engaging with the public. We have had feedback from communities. Most recently my colleague, Assistant Commissioner Nolan attended a forum in the city and prior to that we met the Lord Mayor of Dublin. The Lord Mayor said that the feedback he is getting is that they are seeing more gardaí in the community. It is not just seeing gardaí but seeing them engaging with the communities. That is something we have started with our recruits who, thankfully, are now coming back into the college. We are making sure there are members out in the community visibly and actively and proactively engaging with people. We are making sure we have high visibility, particularly in rural areas, where people are very fearful. We have listened very carefully to communities. We are getting the feedback from communities throughout the country, including in the city where sometimes people can feel very isolated and alone, that they are seeing more gardaí. We very much welcome the Government's commitment to the 800 new recruits for next year because the new student gardaí will be out in the community. It takes the presence of gardaí to do this.

The professionalism of the Garda and how the members do their job is very important. We established victim service offices, and our feedback from victims of crime and particularly as outlined in the O'Higgins report and the Garda Inspectorate report was that victims did not always feel they were treated appropriately. We prioritised victims of crime. We set up 28 victim service offices, one in every Garda division, staffed by both Garda and civilian members. That speaks to the cultural renewal, making sure that Garda and civilian members were working side by side in a key area such as providing support to victims of crime. We worked with the victims of crime groups to hear their feedback and understand what they needed. We also make sure that when a crime happens, we support the victim and also investigate the crime professionally to ensure the best outcome. Again we work very closely with the Forensic Science Laboratory in making sure that we use the best in forensic technology to ensure charges are sustained against people, and an example of that would be the Graham Dwyer murder investigation where the best and most advanced technology was used.

Again, in terms of making sure that we have a professional fit for purpose police force, civilianisation - we like to call it professionalisation - plays a key role. The Government announcement yesterday or today to increase civilianisation by 2,000 before 2021, bringing it up to a total of 4,000, is very welcome.

Deputy Brophy asked me to outline the priorities in terms of the prioritisation around professionalisation. My colleague, Mr. Nugent, and his colleagues in HR have developed a workforce plan in which we have identified up to 600 positions that we would like to have prioritised and filled this year. We are working very closely with the Policing Authority, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and our own Department to ensure those positions are prioritised. Some of the positions are around data quality management, risk management and, at the assistant commissioner level of our organisation, having somebody for legal and compliance, ensuring we are compliant with the regulatory frameworks and ensuring we can provide not just the service to the community but the accountability that is required.

I can ask my colleague, Mr. Joe Nugent, to go into more detail about it.

Deputy Brophy also mentioned the Garda Reserve. Yesterday, the budget provided that the Garda Reserve would be increased. During the past 18 months we have established a dedicated Garda Reserve office and examined increasing the powers of the Garda Reserve to ensure the reserves can be deployed more effectively. We also want to ensure that, after ten years in operation, we recognise the contribution the Garda Reserve has made to the Garda Síochána, working alongside their full-time colleagues. We want to develop it into the future. In particular, we want to encourage people to come and build confidence and trust, and build a bridge with the Garda Síochána. We want people from minority communities and those who may not have always traditionally joined the Garda Síochána to come and join the Garda Reserve and see how we operate, hopefully with a view to joining full time.

Deputy Brophy asked about international co-operation. We have always participated in international co-operation, and it is vital and essential given the policing and security challenges policing and intelligence services are facing the world over. We have built on it over the years. We have tremendous relationships with Europol, Interpol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, which allow us to have outreach to countries where some of our indigenous countries have decided to place themselves. It also allows us to go upstream and target people who are sourcing drugs from areas around the world. It allows us to work in true partnership and collaboration. We have also used those partnerships to provide training to our people. Recently, the Guardia Civil and the Policia National came here and assisted in operations, and we will see more of this. It is the future of policing. We must ensure this level of co-operation is strengthened and built upon to ensure we protect all our communities here at home and abroad.