Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the most positive things about An Garda Síochána is that it is, for the most part, an unarmed police force. We are the envy of many police organisations across the world because of the connection that gardaí have with their communities. It is important that we make sure that people know they can pick up the phone and call community gardaí and those who are on the beat, engaging with communities and responding to community issues, and that every community has that. That is very much part of the new operating model. There is literally a map of Ireland where each area is divided up and each person knows who their community lead and teams are. That is the future of policing, as well as the crime response teams and other specialist areas, whether in domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, online fraud, cybercrime or any other issue. That community reach, policing by consent and upholding human rights are at the heart of what we do.

We had this discussion during the Seanad debate on the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill yesterday. It is about making sure that gardaí are connected to the communities that they serve and are reflective of the communities that they serve. It is important, in our recruitment campaigns, that we do not just have more women in An Garda Síochána but that new Irish communities are reflected too. We have seen that improve over time but we need to do better. Supporting the recruitment campaign for the Garda Reserve, which we all want to see as quickly as possible, and the graduate programme helps to encourage more new Irish communities to become members.

This in itself helps to encourage more members of new Irish communities to become gardaí. This is very important.

With regard to heavy-handed interventions, the powers of gardaí are wide ranging. They have discretion and authority to use significant police powers, including powers to stop, search, detain and arrest people, use force, take samples and conduct surveillance. These are the powers available to gardaí. For the most part we do not want to see gardaí using force. They do not need to but it is important that it is available to them. I do not think we need to change this or amend it. I do not think we need to go further. Gardaí need to be confident in what they are doing.

With regard to my point earlier on the Policing Authority, we see on the front of The Irish Timestoday that one in five complaints made against gardaí are for the excessive use of force but most of them do not result in a conviction. This highlights the fact that there is a reluctance because of something like this for gardaí to use these powers. I do not see us getting any more heavy-handed. I think we need gardaí to be confident in how they can respond with the powers they have.