Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 22 June 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Civil Liberties during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Discussion

Ms Anne Marie McMahon:

That has been a fruitful operation in terms of taking positives out of it. Another learning for us is that there may be other areas we need to look at in the context of providing a similar type of response to other vulnerable groups. We can take that away.

In a broader sense, there have been lots of learnings for us, ranging from using technology to deliver briefings and arrange meetings to even delivering key messages to community groups using technology. These are all things that most people at this meeting would not have thought about 16 months ago. From An Garda Síochána's perspective, we were certainly not in that space.

While there are some negatives, there are many positives that we can build on for the future. We are constantly reviewing and learning. Another point relates to our communication, which was referred to earlier in respect of the four Es and our engagement with-----