Mr. Mark Toland:

I thank the joint committee for inviting the Garda Inspectorate to attend. I am joined by Ms Éimear Fisher. Mr. Robert Olson, chief inspector, sends his sincere apologies for not being able to be present. He is unable to attend oiwng to a family commitment in the United States.

The Garda Inspectorate was established under the Garda Síochána Act 2005 as an independent statutory body with its own remit, working alongside GSOC and the Policing Authority. Our function is to ensure the resources available to An Garda Síochána are used to achieve and maintain the highest levels of efficiency and effectiveness in its operation and administration, as measured by reference to the best standards of comparable police services. We carry out inspections or inquiries, either on our own initiative or when requested to do so by the Policing Authority or the Minister for Justice and Equality. A report on these inspections or inquiries, with recommendations, is submitted to the originator of the request. We can also provide advice for the Policing Authority or the Minister.

The Garda Inspectorate comprises three members who are appointed by the Government and there are nine staff who support it in its work. Our objective is to help to make An Garda Síochána a better service - for the public, victims of crime, all those working in the organisation and the criminal justice system.

While all 11 of our reports have made substantial recommendations for change, three are considered as significant in the context of reforming and modernising An Garda Síochána. The examinations were extremely wide in scope and breadth. The reports offer a unique insight into An Garda Síochána and outline a number of issues that have consistently been raised by the inspectorate. They are on resource allocation, crime investigation and, most recently, changing policing in Ireland.

The resource allocation report published in 2010 highlighted the need to have the right number of gardaí in the right places at the right time. It revealed that there is often a disconnect between the demands for Garda services and the number of gardaí on duty. It identified deficiencies in the information technology systems needed to measure and manage workloads. It emphasised the need for better data and technology to provide an objective measurement of how many gardaí are required to meet policing needs.

Recommendations in the report included the implementation of a national computer-aided dispatch system to handle 999 emergency and non-emergency calls for service and the implementation of a resource management system to manage rostering and leave. The report also recommended an increase in the numbers of gardaí available for front-line policing through a structured programme of civilianisation, a reduction in non-core police duties such as certifying passport applications and the redeployment of officers from administrative duties.

The crime investigation report published in 2014 examined the policies, practices and procedures used in the prevention, investigation and detection of crime. It examined how incidents were recorded, classified, reclassified and supervised on the PULSE system and how detections were claimed. It also included a review of the allocation of resources, the use of technology, the management of caseloads and examined the progress of individual investigations.

While the report highlighted the good work carried out by many committed members and provided a number of best-practice examples, it also identified a lack of national standards for investigation, inconsistencies in services to victims, an absence of intrusive supervision as well as deficiencies in modern technology to accurately analyse demand, record and manage crime and to deploy resources.

The report identified an absence of effective systems in Garda stations for recording calls from the public, serious failures in the classification of crime incidents and inconsistencies in the claiming of detections. A key finding was that inexperienced gardaí were investigating serious crimes, such as rape and robbery. The report made detailed recommendations to improve recording and classification of incidents at divisional and national levels and recommended the introduction of national incident and crime recording standards. Recommendations were made for the implementation of systems to improve the quality of supervision and management of crime investigation. Once again we recommended the procurement of a computer-aided dispatch system to accurately record calls for service and enable the effective deployment of resources.

The findings in this report were echoed in the examination of recording practices published by the Central Statistics Office in 2015 and reiterated in its recent report. They included the non-recording of crime and the mis-classification of crime as less serious incidents. Several of the issues in the report are not the sole responsibility of the Garda Síochána and a number of multi-agency recommendations were included that require action by other criminal justice bodies. The report also identified areas of good practice in different Garda divisions and in different parts of the country. These included a new community policing model, a range of crime prevention initiatives, crime operations and a number of technological initiatives. However, such examples of good practice, while used in some divisions and in some units, were not consistently applied throughout the organisation.

The Changing Policing in Ireland report published in 2015 was a whole-of-organisation review of the Garda Síochána and included an examination of the structure, staffing and deployment of resources. The report is primarily about putting gardaí on the front line and providing sufficient numbers of people, strong leadership and supervision, appropriate equipment, good training and the modern technology needed to deliver a better service to all communities in Ireland. We found an ineffective structure, struggling to cope with the modern demands on Garda services. Many headquarters units have duplicate functions in areas such as change management, policy development and oversight. The current structure, which comprises six regions, 28 divisions and 96 districts, is highly inefficient and negatively impacts on the deployment of resources. Centralised decision-making takes place for some low-level issues. We found that people are not always on duty at the right times in the right places or doing the right things. A two-tier community policing system exists, with high numbers of gardaí in Dublin but significantly fewer in other areas, especially rural Ireland. The Garda Síochána performs some functions which may be more appropriate to other agencies, such as prosecuting District Court cases and the transportation of remand prisoners. At least 1,500 gardaí are in non-operational roles and could be released for patrol, investigation and community policing duties. At 14% of the total workforce, there is a low level of civilian staff in the Garda Síochána compared to other police services. There is no individual performance management system to enable persistent underperformance to be addressed. We found deficiencies in governance, accountability, leadership and supervision. The current Garda culture is inhibiting change. While staff identified positives, such as a can-do culture and a sense of duty, many described the organisation as insular and defensive with a blame culture whereby many leaders are reluctant to make decisions and speak up. The findings are stopping the Garda Síochána from performing to its full potential.

In the report we recommended a new leaner structure with fewer senior managers and more gardaí on patrol; a reduction in the number of Garda regions from six to three; the release of over 1,500 experienced gardaí from non-operational roles; the use of gardaí to undertake Garda roles while using civilian staff for support roles; the introduction of a new divisional policing model; the divestiture of functions that could be performed by other agencies; the development of governance structures to ensure accountability and drive performance; the creation of an environment whereby senior managers and other staff are encouraged to speak up and make suggestions to improve performance; and the introduction of a performance management system to encourage good performance and to provide for addressing continued underperformance with an ultimate sanction of dismissal.

The Garda Síochána has broadly accepted the vast majority of our recommendations. However, we do not have the statutory authority to oversee the implementation of the recommendations, and the full implementation of many of the recommendations has yet to be achieved. Recent legislation provides that the Policing Authority has a role in monitoring the implementation of some of our recommendations. We welcome this and see the implementation of our recommendations as a good way to reform and modernise the Garda Síochána to enable it to deliver a visible, accessible and responsive police service.

We believe that front-line policing services are not prioritised and protected. All other police services that we engaged with have restructured, reduced the number of administrative areas and operate from far leaner structures with fewer managers to protect the front line. In total, 83% of Garda resources are deployed to front-line services, compared to 93% in some other police services. Our evidence, including analysis of data and feedback from the communities we visited, highlights the lack of a visible Garda presence. Another opportunity to increase Garda presence is the civilianisation of roles that do not require Garda powers. This area has not been sufficiently progressed.

The inspectorate welcomes improvements made to the PULSE system. We believe these to be among the most significant changes ever made. The changes provide enhanced supervision of investigations of crime. However, there is still the issue of the non-recording of crime on PULSE. This challenge is common to other police services and is only properly addressed through intrusive supervision. There is a gap in the availability of sergeants and inspectors throughout operational Garda units. We believe many of the difficulties faced would not have occurred if an appropriate level of sergeants and inspectors had been assigned and deployed on a 24-7 basis across Garda divisions.

We have been impressed by the many hard-working and dedicated gardaí at all ranks as well as the support staff and reserves we met. These people are doing their best to get the job done, notwithstanding inefficient structures, overly bureaucratic administrative processes, dated technology and inefficient and ineffective management practices. We welcome the Tánaiste's recent announcement of extra funding for Garda recruits and civilian staff in addition to the previous commitment to additional investment for technology. The Commissioner's modernisation programme is an ambitious reform plan. We recognise its complexity and the need for careful sequencing of actions. For the Garda Síochána to achieve its full potential, we believe the programme needs to move from strategy to implementation at an energetic pace. The decision to move to a divisional model of policing without a pilot programme demonstrates a commitment to reform, while the planned introduction of specialist units to investigate sexual and domestic crimes will ensure that only specially-trained gardaí investigate these most serious offences.

The Commissioner now has her top team in place, new gardaí have joined and the Government has provided significant funding for technology, vehicles and stations. The inspectorate looks forward to working with the Garda Síochána to help the force to achieve the significant changes planned.

I thank the witnesses for their contribution. In its document Changing Policing in Ireland 2015 the inspectorate said the current Garda culture is inhibiting change; does it still believe that is the case? What do the witnesses believe is the biggest obstacle to implementation of the inspectorate's recommendations? Is it resources or culture? Do they believe there would be value in having some sort of oversight of the inspectorate's recommendations to ensure they are implemented? Could they say briefly what the inspectorate's relationship is with the policing authority, although it is a new body and does not have the same powers within the Six Counties? Would they like to comment on that?