Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I do not concede that. It is technologically poor by reference to the capability of a proper digital system. As Minister, I am facing head-on the issue of the introduction of a digital radio communications network for the Garda. The necessary resources will be substantial and it will require considerable effort to ensure that whatever system we chose is the right one and economical. The same arguments apply to geographic information systems and crime. While there are systems available, they must be compatible with PULSE. There is no point in having an island of information. To make a system compatible without compromising the PULSE system, slowing its use or making it more difficult to access and operate, I must undertake an advance study. Any added capacity through a stand-alone or more fully integrated system linked to PULSE must not prove counterproductive.

While it is of assistance to provide information pictorially on a map to show where crimes are occurring, the importance of such a system should not be exaggerated. While it would allow one to see that a rash of murders had happened in a particular area, this could also be accomplished without electronics if it were considered useful. I would not exaggerate the usefulness of a pictorial depiction of the spatial distribution of crime as an aid to policing. If gardaí in Donnybrook station knew there were ten burglaries in Leeson Street, seeing the information depicted on a map would not change the matter dramatically. They would know it anyway.

Any system must be used properly and in a way which provides additional value to the Garda. It should not be an elaborate toy. I believe in a common sense approach. I want to ensure that if we spend large sums of money on a pictorial and geographical system, it is not simply to produce pieces of paper which can be waved around in public but which do not add very much to the efficacy of policing. Different circumstances exist here to those in the United States of America which is a highly mobile society. It is useful, particularly with regard to inter-state crime, for various police forces, of which as the Deputy knows there are a number in the USA, to be able to examine geographical patterns of crime. US police forces exist in information islands and the sharing of spatial information is important to them.

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