Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McNamara for bringing this Bill to the House. I apologise that I will have to leave the Chamber directly after my contribution.

It is good to be able to discuss the gardaí in a positive light in the House. There has been a tendency recently to demonise gardaí within this Chamber in ignorance of the work they do and the risks they face every day in protecting us. In that light I wish the new gardaí who graduated yesterday from Templemore College every success and, most important, health and safety in their role. I wish the Minister of State every success also in his new role as Minister of State with responsibility for drugs, which is long overdue.

We welcome the Bill and many of its sections but we cannot support a right to strike for members of An Garda Síochána because they are an essential part of our security apparatus, which must be in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We do not have the luxury of being able to allow it stand itself down.

It is important that a deadline is put on the review of the parts of the judgment about involvement of the Garda associations with ICTU. I do not see any difficulty with that. I am aware that ICTU allows that every association should have a right to strike but in terms of this situation, a previous general secretary of ICTU, Peter Cassells, said in 2005 that ICTU would engage with PDFORRA on the understanding that it did not have a right to strike.

ICTU can come to the table and give some element of associate membership which recognises that there is not necessarily a right to strike. It is important also, in the context of discussing the judgment, to note that there was strong judicial dissent on the right of police forces to strike and a recognition of the possible impact of such a right.

The Minister of State complimented the Minister for Justice and Equality's engagement with the various Garda associations and the fact that she addresses Garda conferences. This has been the practice of nearly all Ministers, although perhaps not that of her direct predecessor. Every Minister tended to have a good relationship with Garda associations and that is the way it should be.

There is a need to look at a number of issues. It is notable that there is no Fine Gael Deputy in the Chamber today. One of the changes associated with public service reform over the past number of years is the change in rosters, especially for An Garda Síochána. The change in the rosters has had an impact on individual gardaí and their family lives. The new ten-hour roster has brought great changes and increased Garda presence on the streets. However, it has put individual gardaí under strain. Some sort of public recognition needs to be given by Government Ministers, particularly Fine Gael ones, as we move into public sector pay talks, to the increase in productivity in the public service over the past three years. Instead of throwing red meat to the Fine Gael lions, the Government should acknowledge that fact. It should acknowledge that we have enforced pay cuts on all of our public servants while asking them to work harder with less resources and fewer colleagues, rather than appealing to the cheap seats in the Fine Gael backbenches by throwing out the usual canard about public service productivity. Nowhere is that seen more and nowhere have there been more changes in work practice than in An Garda Síochána.

I regret that the Tánaiste seems to have fallen into that trap as well. Last weekend she spoke about productivity. Productivity has increased. The first step in any talks is to respect and acknowledge that increase. It should not be dismissed. A respectful acknowledgement would be to bring the review to a conclusion with a positive statement from the Minister for Justice and Equality which allows the Garda associations to engage on an associate basis with ICTU. She should allow them a position at the negotiating table rather than allowing sideline discussions to take place. They should be allowed in the room to defend the rights and interests of their members as opposed to being an "any other business" item when the deal is done. The matter has been under review for long enough. As we move into new public service talks, the best statement of respect for An Garda Síochána would be to allow it to be directly involved in these talks in some way, rather than consulting it after the deal is done.

This also gives me a chance to once again highlight the Bill I introduced. I wonder about these Friday sittings. Deputy Ó Snodaigh wants this Bill to go to Committee Stage. It would be interesting to see the number of Bills initiated during the Friday sittings that have gone to Committee Stage and the number that got lost between the Chamber and the committee rooms. I introduced a Bill on the protection of emergency workers in 2012. It has been published again. The Bill provides that in cases involving gardaí and other emergency workers, particularly, given today's discussion, gardaí and members of the Defence Forces, who are assaulted in the course of their duties - that is, in the course of protecting the State and each and every one of us - a mandatory sentence should be imposed on top of whatever other sentence is given. It is clear from case law in the past number of years that the role of An Garda Síochána is taking for granted by our legal system. No recognition is given when a garda who is injured or, God forbid, killed in the line of duty and a charge of manslaughter applies to the fact that he or she was a garda. Judges are required by law to instruct juries not to give recognition to that fact. That is wrong. It is absolutely wrong that we allow that to continue. Something needs to be done on this issue. It was said that the Government could not accept my Bill in 2012 because there was an ongoing discussion at law reform level on mandatory sentencing. We are three years on and the problem remains. Gardaí are still being assaulted in the course of their duties, even more so, regrettably, in the past number of months, and there is still no specific protection for them as they go about their duties.

I heard Deputy McNamara's tragic words on insolvency and the lonely place of a Labour Party backbencher at the moment. I welcome the clarification the Minister has brought to that discussion. The system is not working. The Labour Party know that. Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Independents know that. The only party in this Chamber that seems to still believe that the insolvency regime is working is the dominant Government party. It would be ridiculous and wrong to think that a member of the Garda would be excluded from it. Perhaps Deputy McNamara will clarify what his belief is in relation to the Minister's response on the issue.

We do not support the right to strike but we do support the general direction of the Bill and the general need for a formalisation, after so many years, of the Garda associations. They need to be given a lot more input and a greater right to involve themselves with ICTU, but with the aforesaid caveat in place. They need to be afforded much more respect. They should be a central part of the process as opposed to being consulted afterwards. I know the two Deputies in the House recognise this, but, most important, respect needs to be shown for what members of An Garda Síochána have offered up in terms of pay cuts and work practice changes since 2008. The notion within Fine Gael that the public service has done nothing over the past few years needs to be stamped out. If the Labour Party does one thing in Government, it should start doing that now.

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