Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I am delighted with the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I hope when it is implemented there will be some major changes within the Garda Síochána. They are badly needed. The manner in which the Garda protects the people is close to my heart.

Fine Gael welcomes the Bill and the prospect of community policing. Our society has changed dramatically in recent years. Crimes that were crimes five or ten years ago remain crimes but we are now seeing certain types of anti-social behaviour. Deputy Burton and another Labour Party Member drew attention this morning to the hooded youngsters of whom people are frightened.

The primary duty of gardaí is to protect people. Like all in public life, including the parish priest and politicians, gardaí have a job to do, but some gardaí— a very small number — who go through the Templemore training system, who get through interviews and pass their exams, seem to forget their primary duty of protection, especially when they are assigned to Garda stations.

Since I became involved in politics in 2002, I have spoken to local gardaí every two weeks or so, more than I did three or four years ago. If a garda trainee enters Templemore at the age of 23, 24 or 25, he or she will have been out in the world, and will perhaps have gone to college or had a job. Such people have a different outlook from other trainees and theirs is the proper outlook because they know what goes on outside and have some common sense. Some of the trainees who go to Templemore direct from second level education are inclined to throw the book at people, to imagine they are in charge, and superior to others. That is a wrong way to behave.

A garda must find out what is happening in the community. A garda who has been out on the streets and has been around can find out more by chatting to people, rather than throwing the book at them, catching them going too fast through 30 mph zones or targeting a person who has perhaps had more than one pint. I feel strongly about that. Garda training must be reconsidered in terms of what they might have been engaged in before entering Templemore.

Fine Gael members were the founders of the State and of the Irish police force. I am proud to be in the party which founded a force which protects people. I am in favour of community policing in villages, parishes, towns and cities, because people have an important role in that area. When I think of community policing, however, I recall the time when councillors were on health boards. I do not want to see mere talking shops developing.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin issued a report on crime and policing on 7 February last. He said:

People want to see gardaí on the beat. They want to hear their feet on the streets, not their sirens as they speed past in cars with flashing lights. They want more judges in district courts so that all low level crime, disorder and anti-social cases will be speedily dealt with. They want local authorities, the gardaí, the courts and health and educational services to work together to target and reduce unacceptable behaviour like public drinking, drug-taking, late-night noise and other intimidating anti-social behaviour that affects so many communities in the city.

The Lord Mayor went on to say that the report was based on a number of submissions and that 40 focus groups had strongly urged that reducing crime, disorder or anti-social behaviour could not be the sole responsibility of the gardaí and the courts. That is where community policing can work.

When the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform received the report from the Lord Mayor he said:

I am glad to be here to receive the commission's report. The Lord Mayor is to be congratulated on his initiative in establishing the commission on crime and policing and the wide-ranging consultation it undertook with agencies — and most importantly, the residents of this city — must be commended. I am struck by the fact that the commission was set up only in September and completed its report on a wide range of topics in February.

The Minister went on to say:

I will carefully study the recommendations contained in the report. Already, a number of them, particularly those relating to the need for more gardaí on the beat, have struck a chord with me and indeed echo my own priorities for additional gardaí who will be coming out of Templemore over the next three years.

When I stood for election in 2002, those extra 2,000 gardaí were promised. In 2005, we still have not seen them. What people want is just as the Minister stated — more gardaí on the streets. People feel safer if they see a man in a Garda uniform perhaps walking through an estate or a busy shopping centre or whatever it may be. If community policing is to be successfully introduced, there must be more gardaí on the streets.

I meet my local Garda superintendent regularly to discuss crime levels, anti-social behaviour, or perhaps under-age drinking, or drug abuse, or whatever is going on in my home town, Enniscorthy. The superintendent points out that many gardaí are regularly tied up in different cases, perhaps following those involved in drugs or drug trafficking, or a major crime gang. Gardaí follow so many crime investigations that they are totally tied up. They have not got sufficient numbers in the Garda station or on the rosters to walk the streets.

When I spoke to the newly appointed superintendent in Enniscorthy, Peter Finn, he said he wanted to see gardaí walking the streets. He has done this and I have seen an improvement, on which people have commented to me. If they see a garda walking the street a few times each week, they feel safer. At first they asked if there was something wrong when they saw a garda on the street because we do not have the number required to have gardaí walking the streets and talking to people to hear what is going on.

The Community Alert scheme was initiated to cope with rural crime and robberies on a daily basis. I come from a rural area in County Wexford where not a week goes by without hearing of someone's house being robbed or broken into and not a weekend goes by without reading about a crime in the local or national newspapers. If I read any national newspaper today, I am sure I will read a story about some rural community where someone was robbed or tied up. The reason for this is that the system of rural policing has fallen apart.

Most of the Garda stations in the Enniscorthy area, for example, are manned for only two or three hours a day. I raised this matter in a parliamentary question in which I asked about the number of gardaí in rural stations. The Minister has no plans to increase their number. The population of Ferns, Kiltealy and many other villages dotted around County Wexford and throughout the country has increased dramatically but the number of gardaí has decreased.

Bunclody is a perfect example. It is now a medium-sized town but does not have a full-time Garda station. If there is an emergency in the area, gardaí must travel almost 20 miles from Gorey. If, God forbid, thieves were to enter a house in Bunclody tonight, shoot the occupants and disappear with their belongings, how long would it take gardaí to get to the scene from Gorey? This is what is happening across the country because criminals are aware of the situation. Whether thieves come from Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Wexford or County Mayo, they know it will take over half an hour for gardaí to arrive at the scene. They have it so well planned that they get in, take what they want and get away. The same could and has happened in the middle of the day. A year or two ago a bank robbery took place in Bunclody but by the time gardaí got to the scene the thieves were gone with the money. There was nothing the gardaí could do.

Those involved in the Community Alert and Neighbourhood Watch schemes must be commended but it is not their job to keep an eye on what is happening; that is what gardaí are paid to do. However, they do not have the resources or the numbers to do so. My parish, Bree, has a strong Community Alert group. Its members received no grant assistance to erect signs but had to go around and collect money from people residing in the parish. Only a small number are interested in such organisations, often older people. When they become too old or ill to take part, there will be nobody to replace them.

A press release from the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food, Deputy Browne, a Wexford Deputy, stated it was scandalous gardaí were not involved in local GAA clubs and did not live in the parishes they policed. I agree. However, I would not like to see it included on the Garda application form that a person applying should become a member of the local GAA club and involved in training soccer teams, or, in the case of a female applicant, a member of the ICA. That happened 20 years ago. In fairness, gardaí must be able to get away from their work. We must face reality. Members of the force are not as actively involved in community organisations as they once were but that is their business. They have their job to do. If they want to become involved in the local GAA club, that is up to them; they should not have to become involved.

The complaint I hear about gardaí is that people have to wait for half an hour or an hour for them to turn up. People also complain that they do not see gardaí walking the street. These complaints all boil down to garda resources. The story of what happened in Gorey and Courtown Garda stations illustrates this. Both had cars that were involved in accidents and written off. In the case of Courtown, it took over two and a half months for the car to be replaced while in Gorey it took almost three months. The red tape involved in obtaining a new car or having one replaced is unacceptable.

We know gardaí have a tough job. Many of them should be commended. We see them on duty at weekends and they often take their life in their hands. Nobody knows when a knife will be pulled outside a nightclub or in a street brawl. Earlier somebody said the only time they ever saw gardaí was when the rows were over. If 30 or 40 fellows are hammering each other on the street, full to their eyes with drugs and drink, it is difficult for two, three or four gardaí to break them up. If I was a garda, I would not even try. I recall being outside a nightclub as a fight took place and the bouncers had to get involved to help the gardaí carry out their duty. That is totally unsatisfactory.

I cannot stress enough the importance of tackling anti-social behaviour. It is a major issue in every city, town, village and parish and the situation will be out of control if something is not done to address it quickly. I do not know if community policing will solve the problems caused by anti-social behaviour but it must be tackled head on. Increased Garda numbers would help. When the new recruits have been trained and deployed on our streets, I hope they do not become tied up in various investigations because a visible Garda presence is extremely important.

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