Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on the Garda Síochána Bill 2004. I compliment the Garda on the service it has given to the community over the decades. The force will celebrate its centenary within a few years and I hope that will be a joyous occasion. Some wise decisions were taken when the Garda was established in the early 1920s, following the foundation of the State. Those who decided, at a time of terrible conflict and civil war, that the force should be unarmed were far-sighted. They established a force of which we can be proud.

I should declare an interest at this point — my father was one of the early members of the Garda, having joined the force in the 1920s. He served in the force for 43 years, until he was 65 years of age, which would not be possible nowadays. He continued to give active service until that time. It has been decreed that gardaí now have to retire at the age of 57, irrespective of the skills they can offer to the force or the community. I grew up in a rural community, where my father worked as a policeman. The local gardaí were very much part of the community and knew about everything that happened there. The level of crime there was non-existent. I attribute the lack of crime to the fact that the police were so involved in local communities, as I have mentioned.

The Acting Chairman, Deputy Sherlock, is of the same generation as me and I am sure he learned all about the blessed trinity of the father, the son and the holy spirit, just as I did. The blessed trinity of the parish priest, the school master and the Garda sergeant was much more relevant to those of us living in rural Ireland in those times. Such people comprised the active force in our lives and communities. If one stepped out of line in any way, such people would be charged with putting one back in one's place.

I compliment the Garda on the success of the difficult job it has done over the years. We should be particularly proud of the job it did in the 1970s. We could well have been overrun if successive Ministers of that era had not taken a firm stand and if the members of the Garda had not put their lives at risk to save our country. We should not forget the gardaí who lost their lives in the service of the State, while preserving the peace and prosperity of its citizens.

Times are changing dramatically. The management structures which existed in the Garda in the past will not continue to work in modern times. The management techniques and resources which are used need to be refocused and replaced with more modern methods which are geared to the needs of contemporary society. Some forms of crime are perpetrated by those using the facilities of the electronic age. I refer to theft facilitated by the scanning of credit cards, for example. Some forms of behaviour which might not superficially be seen as criminal can do tremendous damage by harming communities.

I would like to draw the attention of the Minister for Defence to a problem that has been brought to my attention. As a man of the people, I am sure the Minister, Deputy O'Dea, has encountered the problem in question. I refer to the establishment of a new website, www.ratemyteachers.ie. I do not know what society can do to make the website illegal. I recently received a letter about the website from somebody I know very well. The letter demonstrates the tremendous hurt felt by a man who is heavily involved in the life of his community and is doing a good job. People like the Acting Chairman, the Minister, Deputy Kelleher and me face the challenge of responding to such people, who are doing a good job in society. We need to continue to support them and to preserve their work ethic.

I would like to quote from the letter I received, which was sent by a man who has been teaching mathematics for 28 years. He refers to the school in which he works, the name of which I will not mention, as "wonderful" and states that he was "very contented" in his chosen profession until the last few months. He continues:

I would be widely accepted by my own teaching colleagues and the vast majority of my students as a teacher of the highest calibre. I treat all my students with respect, I have excellent class discipline, I prepare my work thoroughly, I give regular tests which are always returned the following day, I have a great sense of humour and engage in easy banter with my classes, my exam results are always above national average, I have always figured highly in extra curricular activities . . . . . I have always gone the extra mile for the students of this school without ever giving it a second thought. In the last week, my boss asked me to do something for the students outside of class time. I said no for the first time ever.

My reputation and that of a number of my colleagues has been shredded by the comments made by anonymous people on this cheap entertainment website . . . . . Personally, I feel betrayed and disillusioned. l have made myself a promise which will be very difficult to fulfil, that I will do nothing extracurricular for my students until the day this website is removed from our system. I will still give 100% in my classwork as I have always done . . . . .

In the last two days, I have heard of instances where students have openly stated that they would get their own back on teachers after a run-in with them. In one case, the teacher concerned had had a clash with a student in a junior hurling match outside of school. Are we looking at the appalling scenario of students bullying teachers into going easy on them in school for fear of retribution? Will our young teachers court popularity so as to get good ratings?

The teacher in question went on to quote some of the personal comments which have been made about teachers on the website. Indeed, the website now features personal comments about students. Some terrible comments have been made about some female students.

I do not know what we can do about this modern phenomenon — my hands are tied. Perhaps the Minister, Deputy O'Dea, will draw attention at Cabinet level to this matter to see what can be done. It is outrageous that such behaviour is tolerated in this day and age. Perhaps it is an example of something modern that we have failed to keep pace with. We are unable to keep up with modern technology. We need to examine how we can outlaw websites of this nature, or at least do something about them. The presence of such websites will lead to the loss of the support of teachers who are currently prepared to go the extra mile. They will become disillusioned and start to withdraw the care they are giving at present.

This problem is found in many walks of life, as I realised while speaking to a concerned community garda the other day. I agree with everything Deputy Kelleher said about community policing. He was absolutely correct.

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