Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "DáiI Éireann" and substitute the following:


"acknowledges:


— the vital role of An Garda Síochána in providing security to the State and protection to the public; and


— the investment of €4 million in the Garda fleet in 2012 which provided for the purchase of a total of 213 vehicles and the additional allocation of a dedicated €5 million for the purchase of new Garda vehicles in 2013;


recognises:


— the importance of ensuring the continued capacity of An Garda Síochána to combat crime effectively and welcomes the Government’s commitment to maintain resources at the highest possible level;


— in particular, the value of the recent significant reforms in An Garda Síochána in making more efficient use of resources and delivering a more effective policing service; and


— the continued success of An Garda Síochána in tackling crime, reflected in the downward trend in most categories of crime;


supports, in particular, the measures being taken by An Garda Síochána to tackle organised and gangland crime, including extensive drug seizures and associated arrests, as well as on-going operations to disrupt and prosecute criminal terrorists; welcomes the continued impact 'Operation Fiacla' is having in tackling burglary around the country, with the arrest of 3,538 persons and 1,924 persons charged between April and December 2012; and resolves to continue to support An Garda Síochána in the prevention and detection of crime and the bringing of criminals to justice."

I wish to share time with Deputies Paul Connaughton and Eamonn Maloney and ask that the Chair indicate when I have reached 20 minutes. I may go over that time, which the Deputies know.

Many tributes have been paid in the House to Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe following his dreadful murder on Friday night. It was a repulsive and cowardly act which was rightly condemned throughout the country. Adrian's funeral is taking place tomorrow. It is a time of national mourning at the loss of a fine member of An Garda Síochána. Bearing this in mind, we suggested to Fianna Fáil that the debate should be postponed as a mark of respect until after the funeral had taken place. We wished to avoid creating the appearance by engaging in political controversy that the House is insensitive to the great grief people are suffering. We wanted nothing to happen in the House which would detract from the sending by the House of a united message of condemnation of the brutal killers who are solely responsible for the death of Detective Garda Donohoe and complete support for the efforts of An Garda Síochána. Following approaches to Fianna Fáil on Sunday, we learned yesterday morning that Deputy Micheál Martin was unwilling to postpone the debate for even the few days required. There will be general disappointment that when leadership was required, Deputy Micheál Martin allowed a situation develop where all that was forthcoming was ill-timed opportunism and politics as usual. While I accept that nothing in Fianna Fáil's motion dealing with the adequacy of resources relates to the dreadful events of last Friday night, it is regrettable that agreement could not be reached. It only required some insight and involved basic decency and common humanity.

As the debate is taking place, I am bound to deal as fully as I can with the terms of the motion before the House. It is notable that some Fianna Fáil speakers ignored important aspects of their own motion. Nevertheless, let there be no doubt that Fianna Fáil's debate is, in the circumstances, inappropriate, deeply cynical and completely dishonest. The motion is based on an assumption that the general public suffers from amnesia and that Fianna Fáil-led Governments were not in office for a continuous period of 14 years up to and including 8 March 2011. Any attempt by Fianna Fáil to criticise me as Minister for Justice and Equality or the current Government as to the allocation of resources to An Garda Síochána is demonstrative of a level of breathtaking hypocrisy it would be hard to beat. Such criticisms airbrush conveniently from public debate the last Fianna Fáil-led Government's National Recovery Plan 2011-14 which was published on 24 November 2010 on the eve of the agreement with the Troika of 3 December 2010.

Among the many headaches I inherited when I was appointed Minister for Justice and Equality in March 2011 was the need to unravel the expenditure ceilings for the justice sector contained in the Fianna Fáil-led Government's national recovery plan which, if applied, would have resulted in devastating cuts in Garda services which I would not and could not stand over. The budgetary resources proposed in Fianna Fáil's national recovery plan were unacceptable and would have put the Garda Commissioner in an impossible position. Fortunately, I was able to secure additional funding for the three-year period 2012 to 2014 to ensure that sufficient funding was available to the Commissioner to allow the Garda to continue to deliver an effective policing service. I secured €2.243 billion for 2012, which was €118 million more than had been allocated by Fianna Fáil. For 2013, I secured funding of €2.2 billion, which was €191 million more than the Fianna Fáil allocation. For 2014, I secured €2.065 billion, which was €105 million more than the original Fianna Fáil allocation as set out in its own plan. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Fianna Fáil has the brass neck to stand in the House and tell me I am not giving the Garda Commissioner sufficient resources to enable his force to police and engage with local communities, counter criminal gangs who are intent on terrorising communities across the State and provide for a sufficient Garda fleet. I ask the proposers of the motion to consider their own national recovery plan and to reflect on where the Garda Síochána would have stood with an average of €90 million less each year for 2012, 2013 and 2014. This was the legacy Fianna Fáil was happy to bequeath to the Government. Members will understand why it is difficult to listen to the hypocritical guff spouted by Fianna Fáil. It is a bit like having someone trash your house and then criticise you as you struggle to clear up the mess.

The Fianna Fáil motion is critical of the reduction in Garda numbers. Once again, the party appears to have forgotten that its national recovery plan covered in detail the reductions in public service numbers to be effected in the period 2010-14. It is their document which details the reduction in Garda numbers from 14,500 on 31 December 2010 to 13,500 on 31 December 2011 with a further reduction to 13,350 to have been effected by 31 December 2012. The plan sets out a further requirement to reduce numbers to 13,150 by 31 December 2013 and to 13,000 by the end of December 2014. The number of members of the Garda exceeds today the reduced number Fianna Fáil intended to secure by way of its own plan by the end of last year. By implementing crucial reforms such as the new Garda rostering system and effecting efficiencies within my Department, we have succeeded, with the assistance of the Garda Commissioner, in maintaining essential frontline policing services and purchasing additional vehicles for the Garda fleet, for which no provision was made in the 2010 arrangements. In that context, talk of the degradation of the Garda fleet is an absolute nonsense. Instead of the reduction in numbers foreseen for the end of 2010 to 13,350 members, we have maintained 13,430 members while staying within budget, which is some 80 members more than Fianna Fáil envisaged. By freeing members of the force from unnecessary desk jobs by the closure of stations which the Commissioner advised had no operational significance, approximately 160 additional gardaí have been made available for frontline policing.

Even more astonishing is the reference in Fianna Fáil's motion to the reopening of Templemore College to Garda recruitment to ensure the force does not fall to what Fianna Fáil describes as "negligent strength". Deputy Niall Collins and his colleagues have failed to refer to the fact that recruitment to the Garda was ended by my predecessor Dermot Ahern and to note that the last recruits entered Templemore in 2009. The last substantial cohort graduated in June 2011. No reference is made in the national recovery plan Fianna Fáil published in November 2010 to the recommencement of Garda recruitment. It may interest Members to know that the question of recruitment is under active consideration with a view to maintaining the force at an appropriate strength. It is an issue which I will address with my Cabinet colleagues during the course of the year. In short, people should treat with scepticism and disbelief the criticisms contained in the Fianna Fáil motion and voiced in the House and the shopping list the party prescribes.

It is clear from the motion that its proposers fail to recognise the reforms implemented which are improving the effectiveness of An Garda Síochána. Their reaction is to oppose everything and their objective is to reform nothing while predicting dire consequences resulting from beneficial change. Fianna Fáil's objective is to generate substantial and unnecessary public alarm and concern for self-serving perceived party political gain.

It goes without saying that no Minister would choose to have to operate in this appalling financial position. Notwithstanding this, I have done everything possible to maintain the resources available to An Garda Síochána at the highest possible level. There is a budget of more than €1.4 billion available for the force in 2013 and, by any standards, this is a substantial amount. It is also worth noting that despite the cuts in last year's budget, I managed to make available some €4 million that enabled the purchase of 213 new Garda vehicles in 2012, something of which Deputy Browne seemed to be blissfully unaware. I have also secured dedicated funding of €5 million for the purchase of a significant number of new vehicles in 2013.

I am also very pleased that the provision of three new Garda divisional headquarters for Kevin Street in Dublin, Galway and Wexford was included in the special Government stimulus package announced last July. I believe that the provision of these facilities will significantly enhance Garda capacity to carry out its functions more effectively. The projects are to be delivered by means of a public private partnership and discussions are currently taking place between the relevant agencies in the light of the Government announcement.

I will address the question of the closure of some Garda stations. In 2012, 39 stations were closed, eight of which had not been opened for a number of years. Their closure was a paper exercise which simply recognised a reality concealed by my immediate predecessors. Many more were only one or two-member stations. This year, following a comprehensive assessment by the Garda Commissioner of the Garda station network, a further 100 are listed for closure in the Commissioner's policing plan for 2013. This recommendation is based on an operational assessment by the Garda Commissioner. It seems Deputy Niall Collins wants me to second-guess the operational expertise of the Garda Commissioner, which I will not do. Prior to the closures which took place last year, the Garda station network was essentially the same as the Royal Irish Constabulary network in 1922. It seems that Fianna Fáil favours the King's network of police stations as in 1922 rather than what is needed in the Ireland of 2013.

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