Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill and I thank the Opposition for tabling it. I have a number of issues with the Bill. Having listened to contributions made on all sides of the House to the debate yesterday, and what followed this morning in the media at local and national level, it is safe to say that what I took from it, and what I can only presume people outside the House took from it, was an attack on the Garda Síochána, the Government and the Minister for Justice and Equality.

The apparent aim of the Bill is to establish an independent board that would have general oversight of the Garda Síochána, that would take over many of the existing functions of the Minister and the Government, and that in doing so would improve the democratic accountability of the Garda Síochána. I do not believe the Bill would achieve its stated aim. Changing the functions of the Garda Commissioner, along with deleting the statutory provisions that make the Garda Commissioner accountable to the Minister for Justice and Equality, would not improve accountability; in fact, it would cut essential links between different bodies of our workforce. The Minister for Justice and Equality is accountable to the House and it would be wrong to take this away from a democratically elected House of Parliament. I have every confidence in the Garda Síochána and commend gardaí on the work they carry out on a daily basis. They have taken hits and pay cuts like everybody else, and they have carried out their duties in a dignified and excellent manner. Whether it was meant to or not, what emerged from last night's debate was extremely unfair to members of the Garda Síochána.

I welcome the announcement by the Minister earlier this week that he has received sanction from the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to begin the process of recruiting gardaí. At present we have just over 13,000 gardaí working to protect the citizens of Ireland. As has been mentioned, 27,000 people have expressed an interest in joining the force, so I have every confidence those in Templemore next year will be of the highest standard. This will be the first new set of recruits since 2009 and there was no way we could have gone this length of time without some areas being affected. The average time for Garda clearance or vetting is 12 to 14 weeks, and I can only assume this is due to the low number of gardaí available to deal with the process. Not too long ago I spoke to a friend who runs a surf school and water activity centre in the North of Ireland. Many such centres begin their season at the beginning of summer and in a perfect world they would have hired their employees before then, but this is not always the case as people leave, get sick or move on. Unfortunately, the length of the summer recess is 12 to 14 weeks, so any business working with children and young adults will face delays. Community employment schemes, JobBridge, Tús and the local government social employment scheme are also behind their targets by more than 50% with regard to the number of people on the schemes, and this is due to the delay in Garda vetting and clearance. This problem affects not only businesses but also those trying to return to work. I suggest to the Minister of State that a proportion of the new recruits could be specifically assigned to deal with this matter.

An Garda Síochána provides an invaluable service to the people of Ireland and it would be detrimental to everybody involved if we were to dismantle the system under which it works, because it works very well and has been strengthened by the 2005 Act.

Instead of establishing a board to carry out the work that is already being carried out by the Government, the Minister and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, we must focus on providing resources for the Garda and continue to invest in new recruits. We must support and respect the Garda Síochána. For that reason I will not support the Bill.

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