Mr. Drew Harris:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for the invitation to be here today to discuss An Garda Síochána’s appropriation accounts for 2022.

As has been said already, our gross expenditure in 2022 was €2.15 billion. Net expenditure was just over €2.02 billion when appropriations-in-aid of €130 million are taken into account. That was the largest budget in our history to date. 2022 was an important year for An Garda Síochána, as we marked our centenary as an organisation. We celebrated the organisation’s growth, development and service over the last century and it also served as a reminder as to how much the organisation and Garda personnel contributed to protecting democracy and keeping people safe throughout our history. In 2022, An Garda Síochána continued to implement significant structural and organisational changes under the Government’s policing reform programme, A Policing Service For Our Future, to ensure gardaí have the tools and supports they need to deliver an efficient and effective policing service for the people of Ireland.

We are one of the world’s most trusted police services. We are renowned for our connection to communities and we continue to work in partnership with people and communities throughout Ireland to keep them safe. One of the ways that we are doing this is through the implementation of the Garda operating model. This is one of the biggest changes to the organisation’s structure in its long history. The operating model, based on work by the Garda Inspectorate, the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland and the views of members of An Garda Síochána, will enable the force to respond to the significant changes in Irish society. This means that the policing demands upon An Garda Síochána will change and evolve in the years ahead. Through the operating model, we are driving forward key efficiencies through the standardisation of processes across the organisation and providing more specialist services at local level in areas such as domestic abuse, cybercrime, and combating localised drug dealing. As of today, 12 of our 21 divisions have fully implemented the operating model, with the remaining divisions in advanced stages of progress.

Under A Policing Service for Our Future, there has also been a significant investment in ICT systems and tools to reduce paperwork that will enable gardaí to spend more time on patrol and on the street than in the station. It also ensures that we have robust data to inform policing activity. We have developed a world-leading mobility device. This enables members of the Garda to access critical information while on the move. It again requires less time in stations. It enables fixed charge notices to be issued by gardaí at the roadside. On average, 14,000 fixed charge notices are issued every month from these devices. This means that 85% of all fixed charge notices are now issued electronically. In 2022, more than 10,000 Garda personnel had mobility devices, and that number has grown today to 15,000. Our mobility devices are improving all the time. We have a PULSE person-search app, a health and well-being app, KOPS, a Microsoft Teams app that allows us to hold meetings online and an updated traffic app, which now includes live insurance data.

In terms of information-led policing, major new ICT systems have increased efficiency and effectiveness. They have enhanced the safety of gardaí and have strengthened governance. The roster and duty management system is 98% rolled out and it will be 100% rolled out by the end of this month. It allows us to deploy better resources to ensure that our people are where they are needed most. A new nationwide dispatch system, known as GardaSAFE, improves the efficiency of how gardaí respond to calls for service from the public and enhances the safety of Garda members. The investigation management system enables digital management of all material relating to an investigation. We continue to grow and adapt our fleet. In 2022, we had 3,312 vehicles, which was the highest number in the history of the organisation at that time. This number has since grown to 3,450, including 110 fully electric vehicles with a further 70 electric vehicles to be allocated during 2024.

Furthermore, as we work towards our climate action targets, measures we are implementing in this area will result in better value for money. Already things are going in the right direction. Our fossil fuel usage has reduced by 15%. That is based on average emissions over a three-year period from 2016 to 2018. We are also on course to meet our energy efficiency targets for 2030. As of 2022, we had achieved a 31% improvement in that area. This equated to a saving of €41 million since 2009. However, it will get progressively more challenging and we will be reliant on other stakeholders, including the Government, to help fund projects into the future.

As for our personnel, we received valuable feedback from over 6,000 Garda personnel who took part in our internal culture audit and we have further invested in our people. In 2022, we introduced a new practical and modern uniform and the expenditure for that can be seen in our accounts. This uniform also incorporates changes we made to Garda policy and provides for the wearing of headgear for religious and cultural reasons and beliefs. We continued to invest in the health and well-being of our personnel. In 2022, we piloted mental health first aid training. The first group from this course will graduate on Monday. We are the first European police service to roll this training out and we intend to roll it out to all personnel. A menopause guidance document was also developed in 2022 and published in 2023. We are the first State body to introduce such guidance. Specific psychological support services were also introduced for specialist units exposed to distressing incidents or footage or both.

In the area of recruitment, the Covid-19 national emergency meant that we lost the opportunity to recruit 1,500 gardaí. Public health restrictions at the time meant that the Garda College could not operate. However, after a gap of three years, in 2022, we ran a Garda recruitment competition which was successful and attracted 11,000 applications. There were two successive campaigns in 2023 and 2024. This year’s campaign attracted almost 6,400 applicants. This has significantly strengthened our recruitment pipeline and it shows that many people believe that being a garda is a job worth doing. I look forward to meeting the latest intake of recruits passing out from the Garda College tomorrow who will go out to police and serve their communities.

Looking ahead as the structure of the organisation evolves, there is also a need to ensure that our estate aligns with our changing operational requirements, population growth and with the needs, both operational and practical, of Garda personnel. One of the biggest examples of this was the move of our crime operations headquarters from Harcourt Square to the new Walter Scott House building in 2022. This was the largest estate movement undertaken in the history of An Garda Síochána with almost 10% of the organisation being impacted. In 2022, working with the OPW, upgrades to Longford and Navan Garda stations were completed, as well as the reopening of Fitzgibbon Street station in Dublin’s inner city. We have an extensive station network of over 500 stations. While the international trend is to shut stations, we have increased opening hours in smaller stations and have no intention of closing any stations.

In recognising that accommodation is a crucial element to facilitating policing activities, 30 major station office projects are being progressed nationally as part of the Garda capital investment programme 2023 to 2030.

As Accounting Officer of An Garda Síochána, I am confident that public moneys under my control were expended in 2022 within an ethos of value for money and investing in the future of our services on behalf of Government and the society we serve. I thank the committee.