Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will move on, but it is something that I hope to put to Ms Kathleen O'Toole when the opportunity arises. If there are to be two structures, the joint policing committee, JPC and the community fora, there is a need for more definition of what are their respective functions. There could be an element of replication or the JPC could become a formal box ticking exercise. That is not necessarily just the responsibility of the Garda; it is also the responsibility of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland and the legislation and what follows from it.

A major element of the model of community policing that existed in this jurisdiction has been the designated community garda. The number of designated community gardaí has fallen substantially, in the order of 37% since 2010. It has fallen further in some districts, for example the fall in the number of community gardaí in Donegal and in some of the Dublin districts was particularly large. The decrease in numbers in other areas was not quite as dramatic. The proposal in the report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland is that every member of the Garda Síochána should be a community garda. I maintain an open mind but I would have some reservations. My concern would be that yes, every garda should be community focused and orientated and conscious of the needs of the community and being responsive to it, but if one does not have a dedicated community garda whose primary focus and responsibility is developing relationships with the community, instead of 10% of the Garda whose primary responsibility is to community policing one will have 100% of the Garda for whom 10% of their responsibility is community policing. If every garda is a community garda, when there is a spike in crime in a particular area or a public order issue, or at the time of year when there are lots of events, do members of the Garda get moved off that intensive community policing work into fire-fighting whatever particular issues arise at a moment in time? Dr. Johnny Connolly from the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland was before the committee last week and he said that where the community policing model worked well, people knew who their local community garda was and he or she was the person they knew to seek out in the station, or the person to contact about the community bus or other useful information.

From the perspective of Northern Ireland and the South, do the witnesses have a view on the model that every police officer or garda is responsible or that there is a need for dedicated community gardaí?