Mr. Mark Toland:

It comes down to the absence of a patrol sergeant and I mean a sergeant that is out on patrol and not in a station doing administrative functions. Often a sergeant will be on duty but they will doing other administrative functions. There needs to be a patrol officer, a sergeant and an inspector available to go to the scene of an incident, to make sure a garda, whether experienced or inexperienced, deals with it effectively, and that they check, support, advise and mentor in that respect. There is an absence of that in some places, particularly in the more rural parts where they have struggled with the number of sergeants and inspectors who are available and some units do not have a sergeant to start with. There is no sergeant in place so one cannot criticise the sergeant. In other places they are tied up with all sorts of other supervisory functions, where there is an absence of someone out on patrol available to go to an incident to make sure that one gets it right first time.

Much time in Ireland is wasted having to go back to a scene to do something because the action that should have been taken at the time was not completed. A sergeant would make sure that those actions are taken, that the CCTV footage is collected and the statement is taken and that they would not have to go back to the scene. Once one has all the evidence, one can make much better decisions about who is going to investigate it. If one gets it wrong in the first, two or three hours of a crime incident, it is very hard to recover it. Mistakes are made very early on and it is due to the absence of a sergeant, a physical presence. Sergeants want to be present and we have recommended that there be a patrol sergeant. Many sergeants we met would love to do that role. Sergeants would be volunteering to go back to the front-line to do a role that meant they were doing what they enjoyed doing, which we all did, which is to be out and about, serving their community and dealing with the public, but also guiding youngsters.

The Garda is recruiting youngsters again and they are in Templemore. That system needs to be in place when they come out of Templemore to make sure that inexperienced gardaí in particular are well looked after, well mentored and that experience is passed on to them.