Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Is it not the case that when the Minister says every garda is a community garda we are engaged in a dialogue of the deaf? That is not what community policing means. It is not what the inspectorate meant when it commented on the desirability of community policing. It is to do with the visible presence of gardaí patrolling, talking to people they know and living in the community. That is not happening. That the Minister can say that 4.5% of the manpower is allocated to community policing suggests that there is no commitment to the philosophy of community policing to which the Minister pays lip service.

There is no special tangible arrangement for a grade of community garda and no evidence that residents in communities that suffer from anti-social behaviour and other kinds of low level crime — nonetheless injurious for that — are able to access a garda when they need one. The time has come for a complete reorganisation and reorientation so that there is an adequate number of gardaí on bikes or foot patrol, getting to know the people and their problems in a community. A community garda will be the first to be called off his or her usual duty and reassigned to something else.

Where community policing works it is an almost unmitigated success, according to the people, the residents' associations and the gardaí, but the Minister cannot get away with the semantic proposition that every garda is a community garda. Is the lack of success of the civilianisation programme in which hundreds of gardaí are behind desks community policing because they interface with the public? Are gardaí dealing with traffic offences or those in the serious crime unit community gardaí because they interface with some members of the public? There is no commitment in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to true community policing, as expressed in many international documents and as supported by the Garda inspectorate here.

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