Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for facilitating me in bringing up the following matters with the Garda Commissioner, Mr. Harris. I am based in Limerick and will be going to the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland. I am basing my questions on policing reform. Chapter 9, page 33, of the report of the commission deals specifically with redeployment from non-core duties. I wrote to the Commissioner on 8 May about a particular issue. There is a new courthouse on Mulgrave Street in Limerick which was opened in March 2018. However, one of the by-products was that up to 22 front-line gardaí were deployed to the courthouse for security duties. The report of the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland considers the issue of non-core police duties in chapter 9 which reads:

We believe that there should be no further delay and that action should be taken immediately [...] given the serious pressure on the deployment of visible garda resources on the front line of policing [...] We therefore recommend that all these non-core duties should now be reassigned to other agencies. This should be one of the first priorities in the implementation of the recommendations in this report.

If the Commissioner looks at the implementation element, on page 30 of the report, it considers reassignment from non-core duties in the context of a review in quarter one of this year to identify non-core duties and then, in quarters three and four, in the context of a review of court security. It also mentions that the prison escorts review group is to develop recommendations in the first three quarters of this year to be implemented in quarter four. I know that there was a value for money review of prison escorts. I see the issue of security within the new courthouse on Mulgrave Street in Limerick as more straightforward. The Criminal Courts of Justice were opened in Dublin in 2010 near Heuston Station and G4S, a private security firm, provides security. Obviously, An Garda Síochána is needed for specific duties that are required to be performed within the courts, but they do not require the deployment of up to 22 members of An Garda Síochána. G4S also carries out the majority of security duties in the Four Courts. There are two private, well recognised security firms. I am asking the Commissioner for his view on the issue. Is a review process under way? It would make an enormous difference in Limerick. As the Commissioner probably knows, we have a history. We received extra gardaí in 2007 and 2008. It was extremely successful, but things are still bubbling away beneath the surface, yet the number of gardaí in Limerick has reduced during the years. I do not expect all 22 gardaí to be redeployed to front-line duties, but, if some were freed from security duties in the courthouse, it would mean an extra 13, 14 or 15 gardaí on the streets of Limerick. That is what the public and the business community in the city centre and the wider area are looking for. The Commissioner might give me his view. We speak about extra gardaí which we need, but it is also about making the most efficient use of gardaí for front-line duties in the spirit of the report of the Committee on the Future of Policing in Ireland. I await the Commissioner's response.