Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. Deputy Deenihan mentioned Garda Patrick O'Halloran who was shot in my home town, Baltinglass, in 1924. Most people would never even realise that he had existed; nothing commemorates him. He was shot while following raiders after a bank robbery in the town. Perhaps we might commemorate him as part of the Wicklow 400th anniversary celebration.

Most people have welcomed this Bill but I am uneasy when more than one person does one job. The Minister might end up with bodies overlapping. There are merits to each area, such as a Garda inspectorate and ombudsman commission, and the Commissioner being more accountable, but I am uneasy about where the Commissioner will end up. Will he spend his time looking over his shoulder at all of these bodies keeping a watchful eye on him instead of doing his job? We all welcomed the establishment of the Eastern Regional Health Authority, thinking it would bring medical services to the people, but it turned out to be a fiasco. If I could reclaim the hours I spent on the telephone chasing Billy and Jack, I would have a great deal of valuable time on my hands.

The major shortcoming in the Bill is that it does not deal with accountability. We can produce crime statistics and extract any message we want from them. The present Government parties were great at this when they were in Opposition. At a time when crime figures were decreasing, they created the impression that they were increasing. We get the spin every time statistics are released now that headline crime is down but from what I see, crime has increased. I have tabled questions about my constituency that bear this out. In Blessington, in 2000 there were 120 crimes across all headings, with 40 detected. Last year there were 160 crimes with 40 detected. The detection rate had decreased by 30% while crime had increased by 30%. Until we can have uniform crime statistics published every month, where we can compare X in one month with X+Y or X-Y the following month, we will never have true accountability. The Commissioner could be brought in once the Bill is enacted and told that his performance had improved or declined. The Bill, however, has two aims: to deal with the administration and management of the Garda and to establish the ombudsman commission and the inspectorate.

I have great admiration for the Garda. When we talk about arms of the State, the Garda or the Defence Forces, we think in the abstract but all members of these bodies have families and suffer the same fears and anxieties as other members of the public. They have been trained to deal with situations but they are human with all that entails. They are not infallible. The vast majority do much good and are admired by everyone in society but as is the case in the areas of education, politics and the media, a small number of them let the side down. While those few bad apples must be dealt with in the most severe terms, it is unhealthy for us as a society to regard their behaviour as a reflection of the general well-being of a particular force.

We have heard reports of what happened in Donegal, where explosives were found on a farm, yet no one in headquarters asked why the farmer was never brought in for questioning. The mind boggles in that regard and the sooner we address those issues the better because they would shake one's confidence. By and large, however, I have found members of the Garda Síochána to be excellent. They uphold their jobs in the best tradition of the force.

Section 7 deals with various aspects, one of which is the security of the State. That is a difficult task for a Garda force and an area in which we do not provide sufficient resources in terms of properly securing the State. Apart from a certain intelligence gathering ability, there is very little the Garda can do protect the security of the State. There is very little the Defence Forces can do to deal with an outside threat.

Section 7 deals with preventing crime. During lunch time I visited the National Library, something I used to do before I entered politics — I have only done it on one occasion since I became a Member. I was reading some old newspapers and by chance I came across a report about the late Robert Briscoe, whom I assume is the father of the former Member, Ben Briscoe, who was speaking at a Fianna Fáil meeting in Bray in 1928. He complained that one could talk in the Dáil for three hours and not get three lines about it in the newspaper the following day. He may have been speaking in the context that he felt he did not have an arm of the media through which to vent his views, perhaps at a time before the Irish Press was established. Incidentally, another Deputy at the meeting complained about the state of the roads in west Wicklow, and that holds true today.

With regard to the prevention of crime, we could intervene at a very early stage in the area of education. I have articulated that view in the House for many years but it has fallen on deaf ears. I tabled parliamentary questions on it to the former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, because I got the impression that some civil servants had travelled abroad to examine the correlation between dyslexia and crime. Statistics are available to back that up. A Channel 4 documentary on a juvenile delinquent centre in Scotland indicated that the rate of dyslexia among the residents was in the region of 50% whereas the national average was between 4% and 8%. That is a problem we have done very little to address. Many people who are ostracised by society because they cannot fit into our education system strike back by carrying out violent acts.

Some evidence emerged recently from schools in Waterford where pupils had difficulties in certain mainstream schools. When they went to a school that recognised and dealt with those problems, however, the behaviour of those individuals, who now felt part of an inclusive society, improved dramatically. I ask the Minister to examine that area in conjunction with the Minister for Education and Science. My understanding is that until recently there was nothing on the primary education curriculum to assist teachers in identifying the condition of dyslexia. Until a few years ago, the individual was sent to the back of the classroom because it was deemed that their intelligence level was not very high, that they could not manage and that nothing could be done to assist them.

There is mention of road traffic offences in the Bill. This is an area that should be taken out of the control of the Garda. The possibility of setting up a road traffic force has been mooted. I ask the Minister to consider before Committee Stage whether it is advisable to enshrine in legislation the concept of gardaí dealing with road traffic offences. It is only part of their job. I often feel they just want to keep up the rate of summons. I am aware from speaking to some superintendents that gardaí go out on the busiest stretch of road and stop poor individuals like myself doing 37 mph in a 30 mph zone or the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, who was caught a few times by speed cameras, as he proudly admitted. It can happen to anyone. Some of the more serious traffic incidents are missed because gardaí are trying to reach their quota of summons issued.

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