Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

We had an entire phalanx of gardaí with water cannon on the Navan Road to police a few hundred youngsters on a protest. It leaves one wondering where the Garda presence is, when young people on a night out are subjected to physical assault and verbal abuse on the streets of our cities. This brings the whole idea of public service policing into disrepute. People become so frustrated that such issues are not being dealt with by the Garda Síochána that they asking armed criminals, who masquerade as political activists, to do it. That is happening and it cannot be ignored.

While it remains broadly unacknowledged, there is a safety issue concerning members of the Garda Síochána. Unfortunately, many of the types of circumstances which gardaí have to investigate — sometimes in small numbers — are threatening. A greater emphasis needs to be placed on ensuring the safety of gardaí when they are dealing with such circumstances. Why, for example, did the Government even entertain the notion that the perpetrators who shot and killed gardaí in the course of their work should benefit from provisions for early release from prison? Apart altogether from the political implications, it was wrong in terms of the message it sent out about the responsibility of the State and the Government to protect gardaí by ensuring their safety when policing the streets.

These issues are interlinked and are not capable of being dealt with solely by a policing response. That is why I strongly support the idea of local policing committees that would bring together the various agencies that work with troublesome elements in society. It is necessary to adopt such a new approach to the way in which our society is protected and policed. In doing so, we must acknowledge that there are difficulties in areas other than policing. For example, there is a difficulty concerning school discipline, which has been compounded since the Education Welfare Act was enacted. Currently, it is difficult for the authorities to apply sanctions for indiscipline at school. That is why the school authorities, along with other agencies, need to be involved in the proposed policing committees.

Local authority estate management legislation needs to be examined also. Local authorities can apply sanctions where an offence is committed within a housing estate by a local authority tenant but they can do nothing where the offensive behaviour is perpetrated by somebody who is not a local authority tenant or where the activity occurs outside the housing estate. The offender may, for example, be a tenant purchaser or be living in private housing. Consequently, the legislation needs to be re-examined in that context.

The health services also need to be examined in this regard and, in particular, the way in which we are dealing with the problems of psychiatric illness. This area needs to be faced up to because there have been cases where serious crimes have been perpetrated by people who, it has subsequently been discovered, were under some form of psychiatric care. We need to look afresh at the way in which such care is being provided, with a view to ensuring the priority is to protect public safety at all times.

There is also a problem concerning substance abuse and I agree with Deputy Cowley that the advertising of alcohol should be banned. Over the years, we have had to take dramatic steps concerning different types of activity and behaviour and this is one that needs to be examined as well. When the Minister stops clapping himself on the back for all the good the Government is doing, I urge him to look at the Labour party proposals regarding police liaison committees. The form in which their establishment is proposed in the legislation mirrors local government structures that are no longer appropriate to 21st century Ireland and which remain unreformed. That is another day's work, the need for which is highlighted in the area under discussion. By all means let us have a policing committee in a town of 10,000 or 15,000 people. However, the idea that one would not have a policing committee in a large conurbation of perhaps 50,000 people, in some Dublin suburbs for example, simply because they are parts of larger local authorities, needs to be reconsidered.

My final point involves a constituency-related issue, namely the way in which Garda divisions and districts are organised. They need to be reconsidered with a view to how areas are developing. In my constituency we have three Garda superintendents, one each in Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire and Bray. The latter Garda district covers about half of east Wicklow while another part of the county is covered from the southern end, from Arklow, and the remaining part from Naas, I understand. A great deal of development is currently taking place in south Dublin and north Wicklow, and the manner in which those Garda district boundaries have been defined needs to be looked at. In my constituency, one part of Ballybrack has its policing service provided from Cabinteely Garda station, which is answerable to Dún Laoghaire, while the policing service for the remainder of Ballybrack is provided from Shankill Garda station, which answers to Bray.

I know boundaries of divisions and districts must always be set somewhere, but they currently cause operational difficulties. They need to be looked at in consultation with the Garda authorities so they reflect the coherence of areas.

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