Ms Helen Hall:

I thank the committee for inviting me and my colleagues before it today to discuss the authority’s 2020 appropriation account. The Policing Authority is an independent agency established by the enactment of the 2015 Act and we commenced functions on 1 January 2016. Our key role is to oversee the performance by the Garda Síochána of its functions relating to policing services. The oversight approach of the nine-member Policing Authority, supported by the executive, prioritises meaningful engagement with the Garda Commissioner and senior Garda personnel through regular public and private meetings as well as a comprehensive programme of fieldwork and stakeholder engagement. They all inform policing performance oversight across a wide range of themes.

Our net estimate provision in 2020 was €3.3 million and a net surplus of just more than €615,000 was returned. Having conducted his annual audit, the Comptroller and Auditor General issued a clear audit certificate in respect of our 2020 appropriation account, with no findings or recommendations issued in respect of that year. The year 2020 brought challenges that no one could have foreseen. The authority recognised early in the pandemic that policing and its oversight held huge importance during this time of increased Garda powers, and it responded with agility to the Covid-19 crisis. It was a very full and demanding year with more authority meetings than ever before, 63 senior Garda appointments, and a programme of oversight work engagement to inform oversight across a range of topics, including anti-corruption, the adult cautioning scheme, the Garda review of DNA samples, and the policing of children and youth. Members will find a one-page overview of our work and achievements for that year in their briefing pack.

At the request of the Minister for Justice in April 2020, the authority embarked on what would be a series of 16 reports published across 2020 and 2021 on policing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since we recognised that the proportionate use of powers through the graduated approach adopted by the Garda Síochána was very important for public confidence, the authority’s executive attended at checkpoints and met with community organisations, NGOs and statutory organisations throughout 2020 to listen to the lived experience of policing during Covid from those being policed, as well as from Garda members. This informed our engagement with the Commissioner and senior management, which continually emphasised the need for the Garda Síochána to respect the human rights of those it was policing, while exercising the new powers afforded to it during the emergency.

It is the authority’s position that restrictions to our rights must be shown to be necessary, legal, proportionate and non-discriminatory. It is also important for public confidence that the policing service is held to account for the use of these powers. An ongoing challenge to the authority and to the Commissioner is knowing whether policing during Covid or at any time is non-discriminatory in the absence of information about the distribution of policing or, in other words, who is being policed. For example, because ethnic indicators are not collected or recorded, one would not know whether members of a particular community were policed or restricted during Covid to a greater extent than others. This requires legislative change and remains of continued relevance to our work. The authority recognised the importance of this consistency and engaged continually with members of diverse communities to enrich our reporting to the Minister. These 16 reports were considered by the Cabinet and provided information and, at times, assurance, as to the manner in which the Garda was using its increased powers.

In 2020, we saw the emergence of an issue concerning the inappropriate cancellation of 999 calls. The independent report to the authority from phase 1 of this work was published in November 2021 and we are currently overseeing the implementation of the recommendations arising. Phase 2 is currently planned and is intended to take place in late May. It continues to be dealt with as a high priority matter for the authority and provides an example to the committee of how the authority’s proactive oversight of the Garda Síochána has brought transparency to an issue that is crucial to public confidence in the policing service. It stands along other critical issues we have dealt with that have arisen in the lifetime of the authority, such as mandatory intoxicant or alcohol tests, commonly known as breath tests, fixed charge notices, governance in the Garda training college in Templemore, youth diversion, and the review of homicide investigations.

The 2015 legislation that established the authority was intended to make a difference. We believe that it has, in that it has created a public, independent, external oversight arrangement for the Garda Síochána where none had ever existed before. The legislation also sought to, and did, create an appropriate distance between politics and policing through the creation of a greater structural distance between the Department of Justice and the Garda Síochána.

In 2018, the Government published A Policing Service for our Future and the Department of Justice is currently drafting legislation to implement that report. Under this plan, the existing Policing Authority and the Garda Inspectorate will come together to form a new body, the policing and community safety authority, in the coming years. We welcome this development. It is our intention to work to ensure that any changes in our functions brought about by this new legislation will not in any way diminish the robust public, independent, external oversight that has been provided by the authority to date and which the Oireachtas saw fit to establish in 2015. We have identified some potential risks in the new legislation that may slow and inhibit, rather than support and encourage, the programme of change to which the authority and the Garda Commissioner are committed. These have been shared with the Department of Justice to facilitate its further development of the legislation. Until such time as the new policing and community safety authority is established, the Policing Authority’s existing statutory functions will continue, along with policing performance oversight that is robust, proactive and independent.

In conclusion, I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy, and his colleagues for the work that they do each year. I also thank committee members for taking the time to listen to this opening statement. We look forward to providing any further information that might facilitate the committee’s consideration of the 2020 appropriation account.