Mr. Niall Garvey:

I would like to address Deputy Ó Laoghaire's question about community CCTV. The establishment of community CCTV schemes around the country started to take off about five years ago, particularly around motorway junctions. County Laois was a prime example. The Department then introduced the grant scheme for community CCTV and allocated €3 million to it. Perversely, that has brought community CCTV to a halt. As has been mentioned, there is an administrative issue over who the data controller for these schemes should be. The legislation specifies that the local authority should be the data controller, but many local authorities are not prepared to take on that role and we are at a stalemate. As to how we get out of it, I note there are three different types of CCTV scheme in the country. There are community schemes, whereby the community takes responsibility for the scheme and the data; there are Garda schemes typically seen in towns, where cameras around the town are monitored in the Garda station; and there are hybrid schemes, which are a combination of both. Although the Minister said they are not to be changed, the demands of the legislation need to be considered to see if a hybrid solution can be arrived at. Several groups are now deciding not to apply for the grant and are doing their own thing. In doing that, they are also walking away from getting the authority of the Garda Commissioner for the scheme. That has implications for the admissibility of evidence gathered under the scheme. That is the position of community CCTV.

I will briefly address equipment theft. Mr. Sweeney outlined its results. One practical suggestion is property marking, that is, marking equipment with an identifier. One could be flippant and say that if nobody bought these things then nobody would steal them, but it is an issue if one cannot identify stolen goods. There are several property marking schemes through which people can mark their property.

Deputy Clare Daly asked if there was one thing that might make community policing better. That one thing would be a change in priority given to community policing at the top level of management in An Garda Síochána, which would then filter down. That would have to be measurable.