Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Deputy Collins's Bill and its aim of making the Garda Commissioner responsible to the Garda Ombudsman Commission and to allow the Garda Ombudsman Commission to investigate complaints concerning any conduct of a member of the Garda Síochána made by another member of the force, among other proposals. Sinn Féin will support the passage of this Bill to Committee Stage and we will seek to work with Deputy Collins to incorporate some of our proposals, which I will discuss later on.

There is no doubt that we need drastic changes to our system of policing. The past number of months has seen public confidence in our policing and justice system further eroded after a string of scandals and debacles. A catalogue of recent controversies that have emerged through the courageous efforts of a number of whistleblowers relating to An Garda Síochána are both shocking and profound for the State, society and not least the gardaí themselves. The failure and inaction of our Taoiseach and this Government to respond properly to these matters as they emerged with the urgency required has been alarming and only served to further compound the crisis. We have deep-rooted and systemic deficiencies within senior levels of An Garda Síochána and other institutions of the state, including the Department of Justice and Equality. They failed to account for their actions, failed to discharge their functions and responsibilities in the public interest and failed to safeguard the integrity of these fundamental institutions of the State.

There is widespread public support for rank and file gardaí - those on the front line. However, it has become increasingly clear that Garda senior management does not enjoy the same support of the public. The vast majority of gardaí are decent and patriotic servants of our people but they have been failed by the their senior management and by successive Governments. For example, an independent policing authority was not included in the programme for Government because it was not considered important enough. As the various scandals emerged, something rotten in the culture among senior managers in the Garda Síochána and in the Department of Justice and Equality twined with the ineptitude and worse of the former Minister for Justice and Equality was revealed. With that, a glaring need for change became an unstoppable momentum.

I am glad that this Government has finally accepted the need to establish an independent Garda authority and increased powers for the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission after resisting them for so long. It should have happened a long time ago. A major step change is now required in order to restore public confidence and bring about the radical reform citizens expect and indeed deserve.

We in Sinn Féin believe in a new beginning to policing similar to what happened in the Six Counties. We want an open and transparent policing service - not a force but a service - representative of all residing in this State. We want to see a new dispensation in order to achieve more strengthened and sustainable reform which can deliver a modern 21st century policing service now and in the future. We need to see freedom from partisan political control or influence, operational independence and policing with the community to develop maximum confidence in the policing service and to maximise co-operation between citizens and An Garda Síochána.

As most of us here today know there are five existing dimensions to policing delivery – An Garda Síochána and the Garda Reserve; the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission; the Garda Inspectorate; the professional standards unit and the joint policing committees across the State.

What is clearly absent is an independent policing authority which would hold the Garda Commissioner to account and act as a non-partisan body, free from political control, since at this time the Commissioner is directly accountable to the Government through the Minister for Justice and Equality.

Policing accountability should be premised on the law, the courts, the Constitution and the proposed charter of rights for the island of Ireland, as expressly acknowledged in the Good Friday Agreement. An Garda Síochána should be accountable not only to an independent policing board but also to the democratically elected Houses of the Oireachtas through scrutiny committees, as well as to local government and the communities it serves through joint policing committees. We also propose that the crime and security branch of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces Directorate of Intelligence come within the scrutiny of the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, with the necessary safeguards in place based on international best standards.

An Garda Síochána must be accountable through a professional code of practice established by the Minister for Justice and Equality, applied by An Garda Síochána and benchmarked by a new criminal justice inspectorate which would incorporate the existing Garda Inspectorate. The criminal justice inspectorate we propose is based on what is in place in the North. It would include not just An Garda Síochána but the entire system of prisons, penal reform, the criminal justice system and the Courts Service. The Minister would be responsible for setting the overall long-term objectives for policing, after consultation with the new policing authority. The new Garda authority would be responsible for the effective and efficient delivery of the police service and would hold the Garda Commissioner to account directly.

Earlier this year my party launched our contribution, based on our experiences of all the submissions made in the State and those of our team which negotiated the changes to policing in the North. I do not say the former RUC was in any way comparable to An Garda Síochána, but there are lessons to be learned from the North in the context of the new beginning there, the Policing Board, the Police Ombudsman and the criminal justice inspectorate, which could be a useful contribution to reforms in the State. A copy of the document was circulated to all Oireachtas Members. I invite those who have not had the opportunity to do so to read it and give us constructive feedback. We do not claim to have all wisdom, but it is our humble contribution to this debate.

In terms of the unhealthy relationship we never again want to see develop, some 140 Garda stations have been closed across the State. Deputies from rural areas know the impact this has had. Garda districts were amalgamated with others. There was a 10% cut in staff, which has had a serious impact across the State. Whenever the former Garda Commissioner, Mr. Martin Callinan, was asked about it, he used terms such as "modernisation", "efficiency" and "smart policing". Every single garda to whom one spoke on the front line was disgusted, to coin a phrase, at the use of that defence by senior management. They could not believe what they were hearing. At the Garda Representative Association annual conference one could hear this year after year. The reason the former Garda Commissioner said those words and defended them was the unhealthy relationship that had been established over many years. There was a circle of trust where people defended each other.

Of course, when it came to criticism of senior of management in An Garda Síochána, the former Minister, Deputy Alan Shatter, sat where the Minster of State is sitting and defended it, rejecting any criticism. He slapped us down time and again.

See this speech in context