Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of quick questions. The first is for Assistant Commissioner Willis. Would she agree that within the north inner city, there is a difficulty, and has been a difficulty for years, with a large number of vulnerable people congregating or being housed in temporary accommodation in the city centre? Drug clinics, such as the one in Blanchardstown, have closed. People with vulnerabilities have additional needs and accessing services in the north inner city does not help the level of criminality within that area. That is one question.

The Commissioner mentioned the road traffic corps in his opening statement. Its numbers have fallen by 17% in the past decade. Conor Faughnan of AA Roadwatch mentioned on the radio this morning that the reduction in this regard is a contributing factor to the increase in road deaths. There is not a Garda presence on the roads and that may have something to do with the increase in the amount of deaths on our roads. There have been 165 fatalities on the roads to date this year, up from 140 in 2019, which was before the Covid-19 pandemic and is the most recent year for which we have numbers.

Will the Commissioner also address the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland? Perhaps the issue was addressed when I was outside the door. There are issues around taking gardaí away from non-core duties, such as court presenting, coroner's courts, transfers from prisons and so on. Is any progress being made about implementing the commission's reports, which are not five years old?

The cost of living has also been mentioned. There are difficulties in recruitment because members who are coming to Dublin are facing rents of €2,000 per month. Is that influencing potential recruits not taking up positions? Has that come to the Commissioner's attention?

There has also been mention of the Garda employee assistance service. I understand that in the Cork and Kerry area, there is only one. Will there be more numbers going into that service to help gardaí who have to attend the sites of suicides and road traffic accidents, and who may well need counselling assistance, etc., as a result? Are there enough numbers in that grouping and will they be increased?