Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I congratulate on his appointment, the new Garda Commissioner, Noel Conroy, who is originally from County Mayo. Last Saturday night he was honoured in his native county when he was selected Erris Person of the Year. It was my first opportunity to meet him. I saw him in action in the Oireachtas and on television in regard to an operational matter and I was impressed by his performance. He acquitted himself well. He presents a good image of the Garda. Gardaí in the past were more interested in the night life than in doing their jobs. I wish Noel Conroy well in a difficult appointment at a difficult time for the Garda.

On community policing, I am disappointed the legislation does not include a provision to make it compulsory on new recruits to the Garda to reside in the area to which they are assigned. That would be a step in the right direction and it must happen. I accept the Minister may not be able to do anything where recent recruits are concerned but future recruits should have to live where they are assigned. In the past gardaí lived in the areas in which they worked. They gathered information locally and they knew what was going on. Part of the problem nowadays is that people in many towns and villages do not know their local gardaí. This issue should be examined. Perhaps the Minister might consider making it part of the conditions for new recruits when they sign on the dotted line so that if they are assigned to Westport, Castlebar or Ballina, for example, they must live in those towns and cannot expect to be able to travel from Galway and elsewhere.

Previously, small Garda stations were open in every town and village. The population was smaller and there was less crime but rural Garda stations are being closed and gardaí are consolidated in cities and towns leaving rural areas unpoliced. That is wrong and this policy should be re-examined. I am not saying every rural Garda station should be reopened but a reasonable compromise should be reached. For example, my area covers Louisburgh to Westport, a distance of 13 miles. There used to be Garda stations in Westport, Murrisk and Louisburgh but the one in Murrisk has been closed. That is fine because it is only four miles from Westport. However, the population in these towns and villages has increased and more people are moving into rural areas.

The town planners are pushing more people into housing estates, resulting in increased levels of anti-social behaviour. Every week at my clinic, people are looking for transfers from local authority housing not because they do not like their houses or the area but because they cannot live there because of the activities of young people who are involved in anti-social behaviour and whose parents do not control them. That is a major problem we must examine, as a society. This cannot continue. Young people are on the streets at all hours and their parents do not control them. The time has come to make parents responsible for young children who are creating havoc in every town and village.

I welcome the establishment of the Garda ombudsman commission and policing committees. I have always said politicians should not investigate politicians and gardaí should not investigate gardaí. I hope the commission will work and that there will be a little independence in the system. In the past, the investigation of complaints against gardaí by gardaí has not worked. The ombudsman will be given the power and resources to investigate complaints. That is welcome. Equally, however, people who make dishonest complaints should pay a serious price because they waste valuable resources and time. If a complaint is made, sometimes it cannot be fully investigated and finalised and there may be a doubt. That is fine but the issue of people making dishonest complaints against gardaí, usually when they are facing a prosecution, must be examined.

I hope community policing will work. I was a member of Westport Urban District Council for more than 20 years and the one complaint we received every week related to the lack of gardaí on the street. Another problem we had was the regular transfer of superintendents in and out of the town. We had three or four superintendents in a three year period. That was neither good for policing nor the morale of the local force. However, that has been addressed and the current superintendent has been in the town for a good while. The one job he did well was to put policemen on the street day and night. One can walk through Westport at any time and a Garda presence is visible. This presence has addressed late night problems in the town. The people were right. That is what they wanted, that is what they got and it has worked. I hope that will happen in every town and village.

I recently spoke to a garda based in a city who said he was dealing with drug addicts all the time but the only protection he received was an anti-hepatitis C injection. These times are different; we are dealing with different people. The necessary resources should be given to the Garda. It is time we considered the uniform, in particular to ensure gardaí have the right headgear. There are now people with no respect for life or human beings who do not mind injuring anyone. It is time we examined the equipment gardaí use, especially regarding drug addicts, to ensure they are protected by gloves or whatever else they need.

I learned when I travelled to County Meath during the recent by-election campaign that everyone in the country had a jeep and that they were being stolen. Fellows are driving around in high powered jeeps and cars. The term used for them is "joy-riders" but they do not give much joy to a family when they kill someone in an accident on the road. That is not a great joy and the name should not be used by the media. They are not joy-riders but thugs. They steal high powered vehicles, drive them through the streets of cities and towns and kill people with them.

Being a garda is becoming an ever more difficult job. Like politics, it is not easy to satisfy everyone. At the same time, however, we depend on them. When there is a problem and we call them, we expect them to be there. When a problem arises in the shape of serious or petty crime, we depend on them. We must give them the necessary resources and manpower. That is what was done in New York where they started dealing with anti-social behaviour and petty crime. They also had to deal with serious crime. They knew that the police force and Government were serious about tackling crime and that where there was a problem, it would be dealt with from the bottom. It is important we send that message in this country. We want the best police force in the world, the best equipped and the most honest. We want the people to be protected as quickly as possible.

The Minister is talking about opening cafés. I know that it is a different Bill and that there will be another agenda and another day's debate on the drink culture in this country but the most serious problem facing the State is the abuse of drink and drugs. I put drink first and drugs second. The single biggest mistake we ever made was extending the licensing laws. It has created a major problem in the country. I know it is not popular to say this since there is a major lobby group. I know I will have my critics on licensed premises where this might not go down too well but we must be honest that the abuse of alcohol is the single greatest challenge we face.

We have dealt with the smoking ban and must now deal with the abuse of alcohol. We must address it as a society and should not be afraid to do so since it is creating much of the crime, violence and anti-social behaviour experienced. The time has come for the Government to take this issue on, just as it did with the smoking ban. Like smoking in pubs and other public places, we must make it unacceptable to abuse drink. Whether we like it, we must also tackle off-licences regarding their opening hours and how drink is sold. Pubs may have lost business since the smoking ban but if they have, consumption has not decreased. This is certainly affecting matters. Drink is being consumed but where it is being drunk is another matter. We must examine this matter and if we deal with it, we will tackle a great deal of crime.

I agree with the community policing end of the Minister's Bill and hope it works. It is important to have the community involved to ensure local people know what is going on, particularly in the protection of the most vulnerable elderly people. I remember that at one time in rural Ireland we had people coming in, robbing the elderly and driving out in the middle of the night. I remember people going to bed in daylight and not getting up again until dawn because they were afraid to let anyone into their homes. We must never allow that to happen again. That is why it is important we give the Garda the necessary resources and manpower. The Minister must honour the commitment he gave regarding 2,000 extra gardaí who must be put on the beat to do their job, namely, protect the general public and taxpayers.

That is essentially all I have to say. I hope the Bill works, since it is important for us all that we have a good, honest police force and that people feel, when they make a complaint, that it is destined to be listened to by someone independent who will adjudicate on it. We have excellent gardaí but there is no point in our pretending that there are not members in the force who should not be in it. If they create a problem, they should be removed. If they are not doing their job or breaking the law, they should be removed.

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